BusinessMirror December 02, 2022

BSP: PHL may hit target GDP for the year

By VG Cabuag @villygc

THE Bangko Sentral ng

Pilipinas underscored the resilience of the Philip pine economy after its gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 7.6 percent during the third quarter of the year.

“The robust expansion re corded for the third quarter of 2022 places the Philippines in a strong position to meet its tar get GDP growth rate of 6.5 to 7.5 percent this year,” BSP Gov

ernor Felipe M. Medalla said.

The latest GDP growth rate marks the sixth consecutive quarter of economic expansion after pandemic-induced contrac tions between the first quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2021.

“The favorable growth out come shall also provide the BSP the flexibility to maneuver as it acts to bring inflation back to the target while helping the national government steer the economy towards a durable re covery,” Medalla said.

The central bank has in creased its benchmark interest rates by a cumulative 300 basis points since May 2022 to anchor inflation expectations amid price pressures stemming from local and global developments.

In line with its mandate of ensuring price and financial stability, the BSP stands ready to adjust its monetary policy settings and is reassured by the timely implementation of nonmonetary interventions meant to address supply-side inflation pressures, it said.

By Samuel P. Medenilla sam_medenilla

By

bined total of P250 billion to start up the fund.

@joveemarie

THE House Committee on Banks and Finan cial Intermediaries on Thursday approved the pro posed law of President Fer dinand Marcos Jr. creating the P250-billion Maharlika Wealth Fund.

The committee approved House Bill 6398, filed by Speaker Martin G. Romualdez, after the panel adopted and passed the proposed amend ments of the technical work ing group headed by Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda.

Under the bill, the four GFIs—to be known as the founding GFIs—are mandated to invest equity with a com

The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) will provide an initial investment of P125 billion, the Social Se curity System and Land Bank of the Philippines will each invest P50 billion, and the De velopment Bank of the Philip pines, P25 billion.

The bill also mandates the national government through the Treasury of the Philippines to provide P25 billion as in vestment.

As an annual contribution to the fund, the measure man dates—through the BSP—for eign currency equivalent of 10 percent of the remittances

In its “Global Wage Report 2022-2023: The Impact of Infla tion and Covid-19 [novel corona virus disease] on wages and pur chasing power,” ILO said global monthly wages fell in real terms to minus 0.9 percent in the first half of the year.

It noted this was the first time this century that real global wage growth has been negative.

The labor arm of the United Na tions attributed the trend to sev eral factors including the war in Ukraine, pandemic, international economic slowdown and energy crisis.

ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo expressed concern over the trend, which he said could lead to the rise in income inequality, poverty and even trigger economic and civil unrest.

Foreign chambers target $128B in FDI by ’30, mostly for energy

By Andrea E. San Juan

THE Joint Foreign Cham bers (JFC) targets to gen erate $128 billion worth of foreign direct investments (FDI) by 2030, and noted that majority of these might be poured into the Energy sector.

“We set the target to $50 billion [in 2020] and now it’s at $78 billion. We have raised it. Make it a total of $128 billion by the end of 2030,”

American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Inc. (AmCham) Executive Director Ebb Hinchliffe

said at the press briefing for the 11th Arangkada Philippines Forum on Thursday.

In a joint statement, the seven members of the JFC said they expect the strong economic performance of the Philippines to continue on the back of the recent undertaking of reforms and policy directions that they believe “can provide significant opportunities for foreign invest ment, job creation, and improved services.”

On the “game-changing” liber alization reforms long-advocated

for by the seven business groups and its partner Philippine busi ness groups, the JFC said these are: the amendments to the For eign Investments Act, Retail Trade Liberalization Act, and Public Ser vice Act.

The foreign business groups are also banking on the reforms to develop “important” sectors of the economy such as the Creative Industries Development Act and the Electric Vehicles Development Act (EVIDA).

PIYESta PErYa a carnival-themed fiesta greets visitors to the Sumbingt k Festival at the intersecting barangays of Santo n ño and Santa rosa in cainta, rizal.

bigger every year as it brings local and foreign tourists alike. now on its eighth year, the festival will end in the new year. BERNARD TESTA

chrIStMaS bY thE laKE christmas light displays, holiday-themed installations, activities and entertainment—these are on offer at taguig cit y’s christmas village, which is now open daily from 5 pm until midnight. taguig city Mayor lani cayetano and Sen. alan Peter cayetano graced the opening of the city’s christmas village on Wednesday night (november 30, 2022). NONIE REYES

Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz

RISING inflation and a slowdown in economic growth worldwide dragged down the real value of wages of “tens and millions of workers,” according to a new International Labor Organization (ILO) study.

BusinessMirror

Joint foreign chambers push anew for Congress OK of 24 measures

By Andrea E. San Juan

THE members of the Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC) are again calling for the enactment of at least 24 legislative measures in the 19th Congress, including the liberalization of foreign equity restrictions in the Constitution and the further lowering of barriers to entry in the telecommunication sector.

While the seven business groups ex pect the Philippines’s strong economic performance to continue with the recent undertaking of reforms and policy direc tions, which they “believe can provide significant opportunities for foreign investment, job creation, and improved services,” the foreign chambers stressed anew the need to enact at least 24 leg islative reforms in the 19th Congress.

“We reiterate the need to pass addi tional reforms to further improve the country’s investment climate. The JFC and our partner Philippine business

ILO...

Continued from A1

groups [PBG] have recommended an initial list of 24 legislative measures for enactment in the 19th Congress, which include the liberalization of for eign equity restrictions in the Consti tution, the further lowering of barri ers to entry in the telecommunication sector, and additional improvements to the tax system, among others,” the business chambers said in a joint state ment on Thursday.

“This following list of priorities will guide the PBG-JFC in its advocacy ac tivities through the three years of the

“In addition, a much-needed post-pandemic recovery could be put at risk. This could fuel fur ther social unrest across the world and undermine the goal of achiev

19th Congress. Additional measures may also be added to the list over the course of the current Congress,” read the Arangkada Philippines Legislation Policy Brief for n o vember 2022.

The 24 legislative measures include the liberalization of foreign equity re strictions in the Constitution where amendment is sought to the economic provisions of the Constitution to re move foreign equity restrictions.

Another legislative reform that the business groups wish to enact is the Open Access in Data Transmission which they said “seeks to lower bar riers and cost to entry for data ser vice providers and promotes sharing of infrastructure and efficient use of resources.”

Other reforms are the Ease of Paying Taxes Act, Promotion of Digital Pay ments and the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CRE ATE) and Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) Act Amendments for hybrid or flexible work schedules.

Under the Ease of Paying Taxes Act, the business groups said they seek “to simplify and modernize tax adminis tration to increase tax compliance.”

Among the bill’s provisions, the

ing prosperity and peace for all,” Houngbo said.

ILO is now urging the govern ment to implement the necessary measures to address the impact of

business groups noted, is the in stitutionalization of a simplified process of filing tax returns for small taxpayers.

Meanwhile, under the Promotion of Digital Payments, the business groups hope this specific reform would mandate the use of “safe and efficient” digital or electronic mode of payments by all national govern ment agencies, government-owned and -controlled corporations, and local government units (LGUs).

As for the reforms under the CREATE and PEZA Act, the business groups wish to see amendments seeking to allow locators “greater flexibility in setting work from home arrangements.”

Other reforms being pushed for enactment in the 19th Congress are the Freedom of Information Act; Property Valuation and As sessment Reform; Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxa tion Act; Build-Operate-Transfer Law amendments or the PublicPrivate Partnership Act; Secrecy of Bank Deposits Law amendments; and the n a tional Unemployment Insurance.

the declining real wage—the value of pay adjusted to infla tion—since it is more detrimen tal to low-wage earners.

The said response includes making “adequate adjustment” of minimum wage rates, giving vouchers to low-income house holds to help them buy essential goods, or cutting Value Added Tax.

Likewise, it said that provid ing sufficient revenue to work ers could also help boost global economic growth.

"Fighting against the dete rioration of real wages can help maintain economic growth, which in turn can help to re cover the employment levels observed before the pandemic. This can be an effective way to lessen the probability or depth of recessions in all countries and regions,” said Rosalia VazquezAlvarez, one of the report’s au thors of the new report.

House...

Continued from A1

from the OFWs and 10 percent coming from the annual contri bution of the business processing outsourcing sector.

It said the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. shall contribute at least 10 percent of gross gaming revenue streams created after the effectivity of this proposal.

Under the bill, the Maharlika Wealth Fund, an independent fund, adheres to the principles of good governance, transparency and ac countability. The fund shall be sourced from the investible funds of the country’s top-performing GFIs, the Treasury of the Philippines and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

The fund shall be used to invest on a strategic and commercial basis in a manner designed to promote fiscal stability for economic devel opment, and strengthen the top performing GFIs through additional investment platforms that will help attain the national government’s priority plan.

The establishment of the Maha rlika Wealth Fund was patterned after the sovereign wealth fund of other countries, to maximize the profitability of investible govern ment assets.

During the hearing, GSIS Presi dent and General Manager Jose Ve loso, SSS President and CEO Michael Regino, and Land Bank of the Phil ippines President and CEO Cecilia Borromeo assured the public that

Moreover, the seven foreign chambers are counting on the revi sion of the Build Operate Transfer (BOT) Law implementing rules and regulations (IRR) to address private sector concerns and reinvigorate the public-private partnership (PPP) in the country; and the decision to al low IT and Business Process Manage ment (IT-BPM) firms to implement alternative work arrangement with out losing incentives.

On top of the above-mentioned key reforms that will attract invest ments, the seven foreign chambers hailed the opening up of the renew able energy sector to more foreign investments through a recent legal opinion by the Department of Jus tice (DOJ) and the amendment of the IRR of the Renewable Energy Act of 2008.

In fact, President of European Chamber of Commerce of the Phil ippines (ECCP) Lars Wittig said, “the most recent taking effect also this month, the implementing rules and regulations regarding sustain able energy… [is expected to] result in billion dollar investments from Europe alone.”

Hinchliffe agreed that the re cent amendments to the IRR of the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 will contribute a huge chunk to the investments that will come to the Philippines in the coming years, noting, “Energy will be a big part. I know there’s a lot of interest from the energy side especially as we shift away from coal...to more renewable energy. I think the recently issued IRR on renewable energy…that is bigger than [Public Service Act] PSA. Those are big, big projects… a lot of interest both from the US and Europe.”

Germans laud DOE In a statement two weeks ago, the German-Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GPCCI) lauded the Energy department’s deci sion under Department Circular n o 2022-11-0034 to amend provisions of the said law to allow more foreign players to participate in the local re newable energy sector.

In a separate statement issued on the same day two weeks ago, the Makati Business Club (MBC), a Philippine business group, also lauded Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla and

they have enough investible funds for the creation of the Maharlika Wealth Fund.

Earlier, DBP President Emmanuel Herbosa also told the committee DBP supports the proposed MWF.

Safeguard

F OR h is part, Salceda, who was des ignated chairman of the TWG that hammered out provisions of the bill, said the TWG introduced sufficient safeguards to ensure that the fund will be governed properly, and will yield returns to pension funds and government banks.

“I have introduced layers upon layers of safeguards to assuage the markets and to provide sufficient risk mitigation and downside protec tion for the national government, the government banks, and the pension funds SSS and GSIS. This will never be 1MDB,” Salceda said, referring to the Malaysian investment bank.

“We introduced three layers of audit – internal, external, and COA. We introduced four layers of good corporate governance—in the board of directors, the advisory body, the risk management unit, and the con gressional oversight committee. We imposed regular booking of losses and profits in the books, and annual reporting by the government finan cial institutions to their members or shareholders,” Salceda said.

Also, he said, “we also introduced a government guarantee only to GFIs, which are fully owned by the State anyway. So, no government guaran tees will be issued to debts to private entities, unlike what happened in Malaysia.”

www.businessmirror.com.ph

his team at the DOE for issuing the circular.

“Because of our limited genera tion capacity, investments in RE will make us leapfrog to a power mix that is lower-cost, better for environ ment, and even win us a slice of the industry,” MBC Executive Director Francisco Alcuaz Jr. said in a recent statement.

For his part, Lotilla as the coun try’s Energy chief earlier under scored the country’s vast potential in renewable energy development. He said the easing of foreign equity restrictions in the RE sector will bring about increased investments in the sector, which he said would “certainly contribute to our econo my, provide jobs to our people, and help meet the goal of increasing the RE in the power generation mix of 35 percent by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.”

“With the impressive amount of interest the DOE has been receiving both from the local and foreign inves tors in RE development, particularly in the offshore wind potential, the State can now directly undertake the exploration, development, produc tion and utilization of RE resources or it can enter into RE Service or Operating Contracts with Filipino and/or foreign citizen or Filipino and/or foreign-owned corporations or associations,” the DOE secretary said two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, Hinchliffe noted that apart from the Energy sector, the manufacturing and agriculture sectors have the potential to attract investments.

On manufacturing, the AmCham official said, “It’s coming. I think there’ll be more expansion in the semiconductor field, electronics. You got three huge semiconductor companies here.”

As for agriculture, he said, “Agri culture is a tremendous opportunity. That’s your ground zero. You can take much on the technology side of not just equipment but technology soft ware. Those types of programs ...help farmers and increase productivity.”

The JFC is a coalition of the American, Australian- ne w Zealand, Canadian, European, Japanese, Korean chambers and the Philip pine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters Incorporated.

It “supports and promotes” open international trade, increased for eign investment, and improved con ditions for business to benefit both the Philippines and the countries the JFC members represent.

“There will also be no shadow accounts or investments. Multiple audit requirements, independent directors, and the Treasurer of the Philippines, who will sit on the board, will ensure that,” he added.

Salceda said the TWG also intro duced a 2-percent cap on management fees of the fund.

As a result, Salceda said, the GFIs have manifested greater interest in increasing their stake in the fund, while “foreign investors have also made manifestations to me that they will invest.”

Salceda said that the intention of the fund, “apart from exposure to higher upside for the GFIs, is greater investments in critical infrastruc ture such as dams and energy.”

“The President’s expressed aspi ration is for the Fund to contribute to nation-building. The Fund will pool resources towards that direc tion, since many of these projects are capital-intensive,” he said.

For his part, Rep. Sandro Marcos said the President told the Legisla tive-Executive Development Advi sory Council (LEDAC) that he wants a sovereign wealth fund that could be used to invest in real and finan cial assets.

"It was really the President who told our LEDAC that he wanted to create a sovereign wealth fund. It could have been done by executive order but if it was done via execu tive order, our President was afraid that it would just be for six years. If you pass it as a piece of legislation it would at least be more, I guess, robust in terms of serving other administra tions,” said Marcos in an interview.

BusinessMirror The Nation

PBBM: US proposals, requests for Edca and VFA under review

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

THE initial result of the coun try’s review of its mutual de fense agreement with the US is expected to come out by early next year, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. revealed on Thursday.

T he President confirmed that the review was among the topics he discussed with US Vice President Kamala Harris during her visit in the country last month.

“ There have been many requests and proposals from the Americans, especially under Edca [Expanded Defense Cooperation Agreement]. So all of that is under study now to see what is really feasible and what will be the most useful for the defense of Philippine territory,” the Presi dent told reporters in an interview in Quezon City on Thursday.

He noted among the provisions of the defense agreement, which they

are rationalizing, are joint exercises, and use of the country’s bases by US forces through Edca.

So all of that is under study now to see what is really feasible and what will be the most useful for the defense of Philippine territory,” the President emphasized.

I think, by early next year, we will have something more concrete to tell you,” he added.

L ast year, the administration of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte asked the US government for addi tional compensation so the country will retain Edca and the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA).

V FA is a two-decade military agreement, which allows the US government to temporarily deploy its military forces in the country.

Meanwhile, Edca is a supplemen tal accord to VFA, which allows US military to build and operate bases in the country, which could be used by American and Filipino troops.

Rep. Villafuerte: No other better person to lead DMW than Ople

ASENIOR lawmaker has ex pressed confidence that the legacy of the late labor sec retary and Senate President Blas F. Ople as the architect of the Philip pine government’s overseas employ ment program will live on with the appointment of his daughter, Ma. Susana “Toots” Ople, as the first ever head of the newly created Depart ment of Migrant Workers (DMW). T he younger Ople had founded the Blas Ople Policy Center (BOPC), which provides assistance to over seas Filipino workers (OFWs), espe cially those who are being maltreated by their foreign employers.

C amarines Sur Rep. Luis Ray mund Villafuerte noted at a recent committee hearing of the Commis sion on Appointments (CA) that, “I’ve known her [Ople] for over 10 years, and her heart and dedication for our countrymen, especially our migrant workers, is in her blood, in her heart, in her soul.”

I’m sure the legacy your father Ka Blas instilled upon you, you will continue,” Villafuerte, who is CA majority leader, said during the hearing on Ople’s appointment by the CA committee on labor, em ployment, social welfare and mi grant workers chaired by Bacolod City Rep. Greg Gasataya.

O ple’s appointment was later ap proved on the same day by the CA en banc during its plenary session.  Villafuerte said, “Sinasabi ko po ‘to dahil ito po totoong nangyari, and I am very confident that the legacy, com mitment of Ka Blas, who was kasa

ma po ng aking ama sa Marcos [Sr.] Cabinet. My father was secretary of Trade, at si Ka Blas po ay nasa Kabi nete [as labor secretary].”

He was referring to his late fa ther and former Bicol political king pin, the late Luis Villafuerte Sr., who had served as governor and con gressman of CamSur and as trade secretary under the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr.  W hen Villafuerte Sr. was in the Marcos Cabinet, Blas Ople was also there as Secretary (and later Minis ter) of Labor and Employment.

T he late Ople had served, too, as Senate President during the Es trada administration and Foreign Affairs Secretary under the Arroyo administration, but his most en during legacy is believed to be his crafting in 1976 of the overseas employment program, which has since been a major driver of the Philippine economy.

According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), personal remit tances from both land-based and sea-based OFWs rose 4 percent last September to $3.15 billion.

“ I just like to manifest that there is no better person to lead this newly created agency, than the Honorable Secretary,” Villafuerte said of the younger Ople during the recent CA hearing, in which her appointment was confirmed along with the designation of for mer National Telecommunication Commission (NTC) chief Gamaliel Cordoba as chairman of the Com mission on Audit (COA).

PBBM bent on sustaining peace gains, development in Mindanao–DAR chief

By Jonathan L. Mayuga @jonlmayuga

LASTING peace can be achieved in Mindanao as President Fer dinand R. Marcos Jr. is bent on sustaining the gains of the com prehensive peace process, Depart ment of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary Conrado Estrella III said on Thursday.

According to Estrella, Marcos’s mandate to enhance peace and devel opment in Mindanao, once besieged by wars and conflicts, has been set in motion and is now gaining traction.

E strella issued the statement as the DAR, led by its Office for Min danao Affairs (OMA), joined the nation in observance of the 25thyear celebration of the Mindanao Week of Peace.

We are all Filipinos, whatever our faith, or political and religious affiliations. When we are united as one nation, we can achieve genuine sustained national development,” Estrella said.

A mihilda J. Sangcopan, DAROMA Undersecretary said that the country needs more peace warriors that will fortify the peace-building initiatives under the Marcos admin istration’s banner of unity.

“Nothing that is great comes easy, but by truly uniting for a common goal, I strongly believe that even the impossible can be achieved. Peace in Mindanao will not only depend on the action of our government, it also rests heavily on the commitment of our fellow Mindanaoan who most aspire for it,” Sangcopan said.

Mindanao Week of Peace is cel ebrated from the last Thursday in November to the first Wednesday of December.

It is an annual celebration that started in 2001 through the Proc lamation Order No. 127 issued by former President Gloria MacapagalArroyo to “recognize the common aspirations of Mindanaoans to live in peace, unity and harmony with each other regardless of status in life, religion or culture.”

Cops obtain vital evidence in abduction, disappearance of 2 Laguna ‘sabungeros’

By Glen Jacob Jose

TWO composite sketches of suspects allegedly behind the abduction and disap pearance of some cockfighting en thusiasts or sabungeros in Laguna have been released by the Philip pine National Police-Criminal In vestigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) on Thursday.

CIDG chief Brig. Gen. Ronald Lee said the release of the composite sketches is a follow-up to the con tinuous investigation that the CIDG obtained from a phone video of two policemen suspects and a missing sabungero. The video showed them outside a cockfighting arena in Santa Cruz on April 28, 2021.

Based on the ‘secret’ cellphone video showing two men and a hand cuffed missing sabungero walking outside a cockfighting arena in Santa Cruz, Laguna, on April 28, 2021, we now hold vital evidence on our probe in the disappearance of the said sabungeros,” Lee said in

a news statement.

In a meeting with the CIDG chief, the handcuffed man was positively identified by his wife and brother as Michael Bautista, one of the 34 miss ing cockfighting aficionados as they recognized him from his haircut, body build and personal belongings.

L ee has directed the CIDG Re gional Field Unit 4A to take the formal statements of the wife and brother of Bautista as part of their ongoing investigation.

W ith the video on hand and through the computerized facial

composites of the suspects, CIDG spokesperson Major Mae Ann Cu nanan said they now have leads on the identity of the two suspects, while enhancement of the said cell phone video is ongoing at the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group.

The video has not been enhanced yet but this one proves with facial recognition and identification. We are looking at something that these could be the suspects and we will head in the direction…So we will hand over the video to ACG to en hance the raw video so that the result

of the facial composite will be better, but since it is still a raw video, we have obtained this composition and it will also help in the investigation about the missing sabungero,” Cunanan told reporters in a news briefing at Camp Crame in Filipino.

A criminal complaint against the suspects is currently being pre pared for filing before the Depart ment of Justice.

“As soon as I assumed the posi tion of Director of CIDG, one of my priorities was the continuous in vestigation of the missing victims.

Hindi natin ito nilubayan o isinantabi, ang CIDG ay patuloy na naghahanap ng mga ebidensiyang at mga saksi na makakatulong sa paglutas ng insiden teng ito,”Lee stressed.

A ll of the missing sabungeros re main unaccounted for.

R eports said their abduction and disappearance was allegedly a part of the crackdown of online cock fighting operators against those who are suspected to be engaged in game fixing.

58 natl artists, scientists, UP professors emeriti endorse Fidel Nemenzo as next UP president

THREE national artists, three national scientists, a former UP president, former chancel lors of UP Baguio, UP Visayas, and UP Open University and over 40 UP pro fessors emeriti issued late Wednes day evening a statement supporting the candidacy of Dr. Fidel Nemenzo for the UP presidency.

“It is our most informed and judi cious view,” declares the statement, “that, among the current aspirants for UP President, only UP Diliman Chancellor Fidel R. Nemenzo fulfills all of our criteria for an idealand ex emplary academic leader.”

The signatories are well-respected, highly accomplished members of the Philippines’s academic, artistic, and scientific communities. They come from a diverse range of disciplines and UP campuses, such as Baguio, Cebu, Diliman, Los Baños, Manila, Visayas and Open University.

Growing up in UP and coming from a family of academics, Dr. Fidel R. Ne menzo, a mathematician, rose through the ranks, from instructor to profes sor, and eventually became chancellor of UP Diliman in March 2020.

National artists and national scientists have made “significant contributions to the arts and let ters,” and to science and technology, respectively. Two signatories are “academicians,” a label that refers to membership in the prestigious Na tional Academy of Science and Tech nology (NAST). “Professor emeritus” is a title conferred on select retired faculty members for their “excep tional achievement and exemplary service to the University.”

T he UP Board of Regents, the university’s highest policy-making body, will vote on the next UP pres ident on December 9, 2022. The other nominees are Patrick Alain T. Azanza; Salvador B. Belaro Jr.; An

Below is the complete list of sig natories endorsing Nemenzo’s ap pointment to the UP presidency:

1 National Artist Gémino H. Abad, UP Diliman (Literature and Creative Writing)

2 N ational Artist Virgilio S. Almario, UP Diliman (Filipino and Philippine Literature)

3 National Scientist Lourdes J. Cruz, UP Diliman (Marine Science)

4 National Scientist Raul V. Fa bella, UP Diliman (Economics)

5 N ational Artist Ramón P. Santos, UP Diliman (Composition and Theory)

6 National Scientist Gavino Tro no Jr., UP Diliman (Marine Science)

7 Former UP President Emer linda R. Roman, UP Diliman (Busi ness Administration)

8 Former UPB Chancellor Pris cilla S. Macansantos, UP Baguio (Mathematics)

9 Former UPOU Chancellor Ma. Cristina D. Padolina, UP Los Baños (Chemistry)

10. Former UPV Chancellor Ida M. Siason, UP Visayas (Psychology)

11. Generoso T. Abes, UP Manila (Otorhinolaryngology)

12. Jasmin E. Acuña, UP Diliman (Psychology and Management)

13. Florian A. Alburo, UP Diliman

(Economics)

14. Violeta Bautista, UP Diliman (Psychology)

15. Alex B. Brillantes Jr., UP Dili man (Public Administration)

16. Leonor M. Briones, UP Dili man (Public Administration)

17. Benjamin Isla Cabangis, UP Diliman (Fine Arts)

18. Maria Luisa T. Camagay, UP Diliman (History)

19. Dante B. Canlas, UP Diliman (Economics)

20. Apolonio B. Chua, UP Diliman (Filipino and Philippine Literature)

21. Jose Dalisay, UP Diliman (Eng lish and Comparative Literature)

22. Ida F. Dalmacio, UP Los Baños (Food Microbiology)

23. Rolando A. Danao, UP Diliman (Economics)

24. Randolf S. David, UP Diliman (Sociology)

25. Ma. Serena I. Diokno, UP Dili man (History)

26. Erlinda S. Echanis, UP Dili man (Business Administration)

27. Elizabeth L. Enriquez, UP Dili man (Broadcast Communication)

28. Sylvia Estrada-Claudio, UP Diliman (Social Work and Commu nity Development)

29. Felisa U. Etemadi, UP Cebu (Political Science)

30. Cecilia A. Florencio, UP Dili man (Nutrition)

31. Maria Cecilia Gastardo-Cona co, UP Diliman (Psychology)

32. Cristina P. Hidalgo, UP Dili man (English and Comparative Literature) 33. Elsie C. Jimenez, UP Baguio (Chemistry) 34. Ricardo Trota Jose, UP Dili man (History) 35. Angelito G. Manalili, UP Dili man (Community Development)

36. Agnes D. Mejia, UP Manila (Medicine)

37. Rosalinda Pineda Ofreneo, UP Diliman (Women and Development Studies)

38. Epictetus E. Patalinghug, UP Diliman (Economics and Finance)

39. Ernesto M. Pernia, UP Dili man (Economics)

40. June C. Prill-Brett, UP Baguio (Anthropology)

41. Evangel P. Quiwa, UP Diliman (Computer Science)

42. Rafael Rodriguez, UP Diliman (Business Administration)

43. Rosario del Rosario, UP Dili man (Community Development)

4 4. Academician Maria Lourdes San Diego-McGlone, UP Diliman (Marine Science)

45. Gerardo P. Sicat, UP Diliman (Economics)

46. Polly W. Sy, UP Diliman (Math ematics)

4 7. Academician Guillermo Q. Tabios III, UP Diliman (Civil Engineering)

4 8. Eduardo C. Tadem, UP Dili man (Asian Studies)

49. Edita A. Tan, UP Diliman (Eco nomics)

50. Nicanor G. Tiongson, UP Dili man (Mass Communication)

51. Delfin Tolentino, Jr., UP Ba guio (Literature)

52. Amaryllis T. Torres, UP Dili man (Community Development)

5 3. Rosario L. Torres-Yu, UP Diliman (Filipino and Philippine Literature)

54. Elizabeth R. Ventura, UP Dili man (Psychology)

55. Corazon Villareal, UP Dili man (English and Comparative Literature)

56. Basilio Esteban Villaruz, UP Diliman (Dance)

57. Nestor Olarte Vinluan, UP Diliman (Fine Arts)

58. Roy C. Ybañez, UP Diliman (Business Administration)

DOH receives ₧85-M HIV testing kits from US govt

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco @claudethmc3

US Ambassador MaryKay Carlson on Thursday led the handover of 86,000 HIV viral load testing cartridges valued at P85 million ($1.5 million) to strengthen the Philippine government’s HIV treatment program.

These laboratory tests are further proof that the US government is com mitted to working alongside the De partment of Health [DOH], the com

munity of Filipinos living with HIV, and local governments like Manila City to ensure that people living with HIV in the country have equitable ac cess to a viral load test,” Ambassador Carlson said at the turnover ceremony hosted by the Manila City government on Thursday as part of the commemo ration of World AIDS Day.

“ With this donation, we aim to amplify the hopeful message of U equals U: that undetectable is indeed untransmittable,” she stressed.

Senator Risa Hontiveros,

City Councilor for Health Dr. Louisito Chua, DOH Undersecretary Carolina Vidal-Taiño and members of the people living with HIV (PLHIV) community were also present during the event.

Manila

Secured through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEP FAR) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the cartridges will be distributed to HIV treatment hubs and facilities across the Philippines and are expected to cover the country’s viral load testing requirements for all patients undergo

ing HIV treatment for one year.

This donation of more than 86,000 viral load cartridges from the United States government will be pivotal to the country’s HIV treat ment program,” said DOH Officerin-Charge Maria Rosario Vergeire.

On behalf of the PLHIV commu nity, Network Plus co-convenor Elena Felix said, “We are filled with so much hope that we will no longer have to lose our loved ones to HIV, and that we will be able to carry on with our lives, free from worry and stigma.”

gelo A. Jimenez; Benito M. Pacheco and Fernando C. Sanchez Jr.

NEMENZO

BusinessMirror

DA may seek financial assistance from Japan for PHL food security

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz  @joveemarie

THE Department of Agriculture (DA) may seek financial assis tance from Japan to support the country’s food security program.

T his after representatives of the Embassy of Japan and the Japan International Cooperation Agen cy (JICA), headed by Economic Minister Nihei Daisuke and First Secretary and Agriculture Atta ché Tachikawa Jumpei, recently made a courtesy call to the DA to

identify key areas of agricultural cooperation between the Philip pines and Japan.

In a news statement, Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo F. Panganiban expressed the Philip pines’s interest in seeking finan cial assistance from Japan, either through soft loans or the Japan Food Security Project for Underprivileged Farmers (formerly called the 2KR program), to help support the DA’s programs toward food security.

I n response, the DA said the Japanese envoys relayed that the

Government of Japan is currently conducting an assistance program for procuring chemical fertilizers and facilitating fertilizer manage ment in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN FAO).

T he DA said the bilateral coop eration between the Philippines and Japan is also expected to ben efit agricultural projects in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) by helping provide farm-to-market roads, communal irrigation sys

tems and other initiatives.

T he officials also discussed Ja pan’s satellite technology for the surveillance and detection of dis eases afflicting Philippine banana plantations such as Fusarium wilt, which is currently posing a major threat to the local banana industry.

A more intensive discussion on areas of agricultural cooperation between the two countries is set to take place during Philippine Presi dent and Agriculture Secretary Fer dinand R. Marcos Jr.’s visit to Japan next year.

DBM strengthens bid to achieve budget spending transparency

By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes @brownindio

THE Department of Budget and Management’s (DBM) digita lization of its procedures and processes will be the cornerstone of its transparency campaign and con tribute to the efforts of enhancing e-governance.

D BM Undersecretary Maria Francesca del Rosario, head of the Information and Communications Technology Group, said the digi talization program would ensure transparency and accountability in government and help the Marcos administration build a digital con nection with its citizens.

“ We’re pushing for the Budget and Treasury Management System, which is a system that enables effi ciency and transparency of the gov

ernment’s financial transactions. Ultimately, this data will be fed to a warehouse, where all of the govern ment agencies can open the data, get it real time. And the public will be able to know how the budget is being utilized,” del Rosario assured. “ We’re also reviving Project DIME: Digital Imaging Monitoring Evaluation, where the public will see, using satellites, how much of the projects have been completed. They’ll be able to know the utili zation and how long it will take to finish the project,” she added.

With the digitization efforts of the government underway, del Ro sario said the public might soon be able to know in real time how the na tional budget is utilized and monitor the status of government projects.

Moreover, del Rosario also said digitalization in government may

lead to more foreign investors com ing to the Philippines.

There are also studies that show that with digitalization in govern ment, ease of doing business in creases. And there are a lot of foreign investors that will be more enticed to come to the Philippines. That is our goal here,” she explained.

We have also been informed by the World Bank and IMF that for every citizen that will benefit from digitalization, the GDP per capita increases by 0.3 percent. That’s their data and it’s one of our north stars in doing our projects in DBM. With that, hopefully, the public will sup port our cause,” said del Rosario.

I n her keynote address during the recently concluded Pilipinas 2022 organized by Stratbase ADR, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangan daman said the government hopes

digitalization would also energize citizen participation in governance that will contribute to the pursuit of e-governance.

Pangandaman said the govern ment is in the process of establishing a Civil Society Organization (CSO) desk that will serve as the focal unit for all concerns related to public participation in the budget process, among others.

The Philippine Open Govern ment Partnership [PH-OGP] Initia tive will focus on harnessing technol ogies that will help build the capac ity of CSOs to properly monitor and evaluate national commitments,” Pangandaman explained.

Stratbase President Professor Victor Andres Manhit also empha sized in his speech the importance of transparency in government to ordinary Filipinos.

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

ONION farmers may face a bleak Christmas if govern ment allows the importation of onions in the midst of the year-end local onion harvest in December, Sen. Imee Marcos warned on Thursday.

I n a news statement, Marcos said any onion importation this month may “leave low farm-gate prices unsolved.”

She pointed out that local onion farmers in at least eight provinces face a bleak Christmas if the government’s plan to import the crop coincides with the farmers December harvests.

M arcos explained that farmers in Regions 1 to 3 are ready to har vest by the second week of Decem ber, particularly in Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Pangasinan, Batanes, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Viz caya and Tarlac.

He added that “more than 43 percent of red onion harvests in the next three months will take place in December, with Mindoro’s harvests to follow in January,” cit ing the Bureau of Plant Industry’s (BPI) November monitoring report on onions both planted and stored in previous months.

T he senator cited a report show ing an expected yield of 5,537.3 metric tons (MT) of red onions in December, out of the total expected yield of 12,837.9 MT until February next year.

However, the BPI said the sum of next month’s expected yield plus the 13,043.37 MT in monitored stock still point to a December supply shortage due to crop damage from typhoon “Paeng” in October and in creasing consumer demand toward

www.businessmirror.com.ph

the Holiday Season.

It noted that amid high market prices of P280 to P400 per kilo, the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) attached agency recommended the importation of onions. Have we forgotten our farmers?” Marcos asked. “High consumer pric es are being addressed but what hap pens to our farmers who are reeling from farm-gate prices that are half the production cost?”

M arcos added that farm-gate prices in mid-November stood at P25 to P27 per kilo, compared to the P45 to P55 per kilo that farm ers’ groups say they need to break even at harvest time.

Importation has been part of a cycle of price manipulation by traders in cahoots with corrupt officials in the DA and the Bureau of Customs,” Marcos said, lamenting that “turn ing a blind eye to hoarding and smug gling leave us stuck with the stop-gap measure of importation.”

“ Local crops are hoarded to cause an artificial shortage, then sold when consumer demand pushes up market prices. High prices then back up a call for im portation that pushes down farmgate prices. Traders then buy from local farmers at depressed prices and hoard the crop once again, while smugglers profit on misde clared and undervalued imports,” Marcos explained.

T he Senate Committee on Cooperatives chairman added low harvest incomes will force farmers’ cooperatives to compromise with traders eyeing import permits and leave small farmers unable to pay for dry and cold storage which have “already been cartelized.”

Onion imports in December could leave farmers in tears–Sen. Imee

Remulla orders NBI to probe Naia human smuggling ring

THE National Bureau of Inves tigation (NBI) will investigate the activities of rogue airport employees, including Bureau of Im migration (BI) personnel allegedly behind the trafficking of Filipino workers who were forced into crypto currency investment scams in Myan mar, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said Thursday.

“

We’re already investigating that. We’re asking the NBI to investigate it,” Remulla said in a chance inter view with reporters, adding that the probe will include uncovered infor mation in the Senate investigation on the controversy.

“

’Yung findings ng hearing pa rin ang aming [The findings of the Senate hearing]—we’re making it the start ing point of the investigation because the hearings were very revealing as to the modus operandi,” he said.

He said no immigration personnel or official will be exempted from li ability if found to be culpable by the NBI investigation.

“Kahit sino pa ’yan [Whoever they maybe]” Remulla said.

D uring the hearing of the Sen ate committee on women, chil dren, family relations and gender equality, a victim said they were provided with fake official airport access stamps to skirt screening by the Bureau of Immigration.

Immigration Commissioner Nor man Tansingco has urged airport authorities to investigate the rising cases of attempted trafficking in volving fake entry passes.

Tansingco said he issued an order to BI Port Operations Division chief Carlos Capulong to coordinate with the Manila International Airport Au thority (MIAA) to request a thorough investigation of the issue.

T he concern came after airport security and police intercepted three victims earlier in November.

T he victims reportedly used fake airport access passes, or pre tending to be employees of various airport concessionaires, to enter the boarding gates.

Upon closer inspection by air port security, it was also found out that their passports and boarding passes contained counterfeit im migration stamps.

T he BI also received a report that last November 16, another female victim was intercepted by aviation security personnel.

T he victim, bound for Kuala Lum pur, presented a fake access pass and

attempted to enter the employees’ entrance.

Her passport and boarding pass also contained fake stamps, which she said, were only given to her out side airport premises.

Tansingco added that previous victims might have used the em ployees’ entrance to evade strict de parture assessment, to depart the country to illegally work in countries such as Myanmar.

Long-term solutions sought IN the meantime, Senator Risa Hon tiveros urged the government to come out with a long-term solution on human trafficking, most likely through cooperation initiatives Asean member-countries, as well as other countries whose residents were victimized by the scam.

Moving forward, there have to be clear transborder solutions. The Philippines, Thailand, and Malay sia are bound by the Asean conven tion against trafficking in persons, kaya dapat mayroong [There must be] tighter coordination para sugpuin ang krimeng ito [to suppress this crime],” she said in a news statement.

“Mainam na may pagtutulungan at koordinasyon din sa mga Estado ng US, Canada, Germany, at UK, lalo na at ang mga mamamayan nila ang kadala sang biktima ng mga scams [It would also be better if there is cooperation and coordination with the US, Ger many, United Kingdom, since most of their citizens fall victim to these scams],” Hontiveros said.

She also urged the government agencies such as the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Mi grant Workers and Overseas Work ers Welfare Administration to co ordinate with their counterparts to ensure the safe return of the victims to the country.

T he BI on Thursday said it has yet to find links among its personnel to the human trafficking of Filipinos to Myanmar, adding the perpetuators may not be BI employees.

During the hearing last Tuesday, Filipino workers sent to Myanmar were given fake airport employee identification cards and asked to wear uniforms of airport concession aires so they can skip immigration.

MIAA on the other hand said they are not discounting the pos sibility that a concessionaire might be involved in the syndicate and that they are still investigating the case.

With reports from Leonel Abasola/PNA

By Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco @claudethmc3

DEPARTMENT of Health (DOH) on Thursday reported 1,383 newly diagnosed HIV cases and 65 newly reported deaths in the country as of October 2022. Ninety-six percent of the new cases were male.

T he latest DOH HIV, AIDS and ART Registry of the Philippines also showed that the age of reported cases ranged from 2 to 75 years old.

Se xual contact remained as the predominant mode of transmission at 97 percent.

According to experts, if the current efforts in HIV response are main tained, the estimated People Living with HIV (PLHIV) in the Philippines could reach 364,000 by 2030, which is a two-fold increase from estimated PLHIV by the end of 2022.

Currently, there were 107,177 cases since January 1984.

In line with the goal to contribute to the global goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 and the annual observance of the World AIDS Day, the DOH launched the 7th AIDS Medium Term Plan (AMTP) and called for equal access to ser vices for People Living with HIV (PLHIV) as well as full protection of human rights.

T his year’s World AIDS Day theme

“Putting Ourselves to the Test, Achieving Equity to End HIV” calls for bold, urgent action to promote rights-based, community-led, and evidence-based HIV services includ ing prevention, sexual and reproduc tive health services, HIV testing, treatment, care and support.

T he celebration also emphasizes accountability and action, affirming the country’s participation in the Global AIDS Strategy (2021-2026) that seeks to reduce inequalities by 2025 that drive the AIDS epidemic.

The ongoing HIV and AIDS epidemic in the country remains to be one of the long-standing is sues requiring concerted action from all sectors of society. While the DOH strives to ensure con tinuous, unhampered provision of health services to all Filipinos, we also require the support of other sectors and stakeholders to culti vate a sustainable and supportive environment that is responsive to the needs of our vulnerable and key populations—such as our PLHIVs.

T he goal of ending AIDS can only be achieved if the inequalities that predispose us to the disease and ex acerbate its impacts are addressed.” said DOH Officer-in-Charge Maria Rosario Singh-Vergeire.

To realize the vision of zero new infection, zero discrimination, and zero AIDS-related death, the

PBBM assures Kadiwa full-scale food supply service till March ’23

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

THE

T he President made the an nouncement during the Kadiwa ng Pasko event at the Quezon City Hall.

DTI

T he initiative is part of the na tional government’s efforts to sell food items and other “high qual

ity merchandise” at lower prices compared to retailers by directly buying from suppliers then resell ing it to consumers.

“As it stands right now, in terms of [food] supply, we’re okay until at the very least, February, March of next year. Hopefully by then, the prices of commodities in the market will have normalized,” Marcos told reporters in an interview.

L ast month, the Philippine Statistic Authority (PSA) said a big contributor to the 7.7 percent inflation last October was the rise in the prices of food and alcoholic beverages.

Marcos said once prices of basic goods in the market will drop to the

same level being sold in Kadiwa, they might cease holding the program in urban areas.

Instead, he said, they would just continue to use Kadiwa as means to distribute food and other basic com modities in far-flung areas.

“ But we’re not yet there at that point, that is why we are still ex panding it [Kadiwa] in other parts of the country,” the President said.

D uring its launch on Novem ber 16, Kadiwa market held by the national government with local government units (LGU) covered 14 areas in the National Capital Region, Tacloban City, Davao De Oro, and in Koronadal City, South Cotabato.

prods Japanese investors to expand operations in PHL

By Andrea E. San Juan

THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Board of Investments (BOI) have re cently concluded a Philippine Invest ment Roadshow in Osaka City that seeks to prod potential Japanese investors to expand their operations in the Philippines.

I n a news statement issued on Thursday, the DTI said several highprofile activities constituted the in vestment roadshow last November 18, starting with meetings with Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC) Osaka’s “important” strategic partners, such as with of ficials of Resona Bank Ltd. and the Osaka International Business Pro motion Center.

T he DTI said this was followed by a high-level Philippine Invest ment Round Table Meeting hosted by Resona Bank at their Osaka head quarters, attended by major Kansaibased companies, some of which have wide-scale operations in the country.

T he agency said Trade Undersec retary and Board of Investments (BOI) Managing Head Ceferino S. Rodolfo delivered the keynote presentation at the Investment Round Table, where he discussed the strategic investment opportu nities in key sectors particularly for Japanese firms, government incentives, and the country’s com parative advantages.

During the forum, Rodolfo dis cussed the current economic outlook, strategic opportunities for Japanese manufacturing players and the coun try’s menu of investment incentives and programs. Additionally, he high lighted the countries’ exceptional performance as it recovered from the negative effects of the pandemic, espe cially as the manufacturing industry, rose to being second in Asean from January to October 2022. Philippine exports also grew by 14.4 percent and foreign direct investments [FDI] by 82 percent in 2021,” the DTI official said.  T he DTI statement said Rodolfo also cited “game-changing” key policy reforms offering to provide valuable investment incentives and programs to reduce cost of doing business in the Philippines such as the Corporate Recovery and Tax In centives for Enterprise (CREATE) Act, the amendments made to the Re tail Trade Liberalization Act (RTLA), Foreign Investment Act (FIA), and Public Services Act (PSA), which are all envisioned to attract more Japa nese participation in the country’s FDI pipeline.

Meanwhile, the Trade department said Deputy Consul General Melchor Lalunio of the Philippine Consulate General in Osaka delivered the closing remarks at the Philippine Investment Round Table Meeting, encouraging Japanese companies to explore in vestment possibilities in the country.  In addition to the executives rep

resenting various companies at the roundtable meeting, the DTI said PTIC Osaka also organized a series of one-on-one meetings for Rodolfo and the rest of the BOI executive directors, with top executives of various Kan sai-based Japanese companies, who all announced their plans to expand their operations and infuse additional investments into the country.

A ccording to DTI, these com panies belong to key manufactur ing sectors such as precision metal parts and components, high-end garments manufacturing precision plastics and components and soft ware development among others, two of which signified their inten tion to establish manufacturing facilities in Calabarzon in addition to existing facilities in Cebu.

PTIC Osaka has identified several priority sectors such as automotive industry manufacturing and electric vehicle [EV], innovation and research

and development, agriculture mod ernization, pharmaceutical and life sciences, infrastructure development, among others, and key strategies in the delivery of its trade and invest ment promotion mandates, among them, aggressive promotion of the Philippines as a preferred destination for Japanese supply chain players, mostly belonging to the small and medium enterprise bracket, which comprise 99.7 percent of all Japanese companies,” the DTI said.

T he agency said this is “particu larly important” as there is a press ing need to “significantly” improve the country’s manufacturing supply and value chain ecosystem to support the presence of major manufactur ing conglomerates already operating in the country, as well as to attract the entry of new players and reduce dependence on importation in the sourcing of manufacturing imports and raw materials.

DOH emphasized that all stake holders and partners, including community and civil society or ganizations, must act holistically–not just looking at health but also addressing its determinants—to end the HIV epidemic.

We must all work together not just to implement our strategies and interventions, but to ensure that those who need it most—especially our PLHIVs and other key popula tions—are able to access our HIV services without difficulty or stigma. Beyond this, we must also harness our individual expertise and join our efforts to address the systemic and socioeconomic barriers that prevent our fellow Filipinos from leading healthy, productive lives free from the impacts of HIV. Only through collective action will we be able to end the HIV epidemic in the coun try,” Vergeire said.

On an individual level... Let us always practice safe sex, regularly undergo HIV testing, and encour age all our friends and peers to do the same,” Vergeire reminded.

Globally, UNAIDS disclosed that there were 38.4 million people living with HIV at the end of 2021.

In the Asia and Pacific Region, the Philippines has the fastest growing HIV case with a 237 percent increase in annual new HIV infections from 2010-2021.

THE Makati Business Club (MBC), in partnership with the Konrad Adenauer Stif tung, concluded this year’s Digital Democracy project in Pasig City.

T he project helps LGUs use digi tal tools to consult or shape policy with constituents to promote civil dialogue. Pasig chose cycling policy as the subject of the project.

Pasig Transport engaged with its citizens—workers, businesses, ad vocates, academe, and organization representatives to get their feedback on how Pasig Transport could better encourage and support people biking to work and their initial ideas about creating a Cycling Advisory Board to address active transport issues.

Two online citizen assemblies gathered over 400 workers and 150 business managers to share their sentiments about biking to work that would help Pasig Transport improve transport policies.

Results showed that workers and businesses want safer roads, more awareness campaigns on existing biking policies, better traffic policy enforcement, and more local govern ment unit (LGU) support for busi nesses’ bike programs and policies.

government’s Kadiwa program in major cities will continue until early next year when prices of basic commodities are expected to finally normalize, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. announced on Thursday.

DOH reports 1,383 new HIV cases, 65 deaths as of Oct MBC and Pasig Transport push creation of cycling advisory

Beijing sees record Covid cases as China vows small easing steps

THE Chinese capital of Beijing reported 5,006 cases for Wednesday, a record, as it struggles to contain the worst ever outbreak to hit the country’s political and cultural center amid public anger at the punishing Covid Zero regime.

The surge comes at a critical moment for leaders, who have to decide whether to tolerate some spread of the virus or revert to strict Covid Zero curbs to halt the outbreak at the expense of the economy. While many districts are largely at a standstill through creeping curbs and with people afraid to go out, officials have re frained from declaring mass lock downs or testing.

The infections are still a rela tively small number for a city of 22 million, but they’ve been enough to send panic through the capital of a country that’s largely kept the virus out for nearly three years.

Beijingers have hunkered down, fearful not just of the virus but of getting identified as a close contact and sent to government isolation facilities where condi tions are poor.

Across China, new Covid in fections numbered 34,942 for Wednesday, coming slightly off a peak of 38,808 registered over the weekend. While case numbers may be naturally leveling off, the lowered count may also stem from recent moves to exempt those who stay at home for long periods of time, like children and the elderly, from frequent testing.

Signs that China is taking a softer stance on Covid control have emerged in media and official rhetoric. In a meeting Wednesday with experts, Vice Premier Sun Chunlan pledged to “optimize” Covid control through “small but continued steps,” and did not use the phrase “dynamic Covid Zero.”

Across China, cities facing outbreaks have moved away from broad rules. Guangzhou on Wednesday ended lockdown measures in all but one of its 11 districts. Nevertheless, restric tions remained in many high-risk areas, leaving in place a complex web of rules for locals to navigate.

Guangdong province reported 7,252 cases for Wednesday, while western metropolis Chongqing

recorded 6,584.

The softening comes as public discontent with the strict rules mount, ranging from residents fighting back against lockdown measures to hundreds gathering in street protests earlier this week. In Beijing, people in some housing compounds have banded together to stop officials from sealing off their residences or sending them to quarantine camps.

With the surging numbers of infected, the capital is seeing its makeshift hospitals for mild Co vid patients and those for treating more severe ones near capacity, which has also allowed more peo ple to isolate at home by default.

State media has also started to downplay Covid’s severity, saying the Omicron variant has evolved to be far less virulent, citing scien tific studies and medical experts.

Home quarantine

MEANWHILE , Beijing will al low some virus-infected people to isolate at home, starting with residents of its most-populous district, a significant shift that reflects the pressure officials are under from a record outbreak and public opposition to Covid Zero.

Low-risk patients can do home isolation for a week if they choose, people familiar with the plans said, dialing back a nationwide policy that has seen everyone with Covid sent to government quarantine sites regardless of severity, to halt transmission chains.

The shift has already begun in Chaoyang district—home to some 3.5 million people as well as foreign embassies and company offices—and it will act as an ex ample for other districts to fol low, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing an order that’s not yet public.

Tight resources and a need to prevent social unrest are behind the shift, according to the people. Those who take part must sign a

letter committing to not going outside their homes during the quarantine period, and their doors will be fitted with a magnetized sensor that sends an alert to the authorities when it’s opened, one of the people said.

Those allowed to home quar antine include people with spe cial physical or living conditions, such as pregnant women, one of the people said, as well as those strongly resistant to going into government-run isolation, accord ing to the people.

Calls to the Beijing city govern ment and its health commission weren’t answered.

The move, which diminishes the level of control officials have over infected people, comes as Beijing experiences its largest outbreak of the pandemic, with more than 5,000 cases reported on Wednesday. The temporary quarantine centers built to house infected people are running out of capacity, the people said.

The shift also follows protests across China at the weekend against the country’s strict ap proach to containing the virus, known as Covid Zero.

China has signaled a transi tion away from the harshest Covid curbs in recent days, re-emphasiz ing a revised playbook that relies more on targeted measures to con trol the virus than the sweeping lockdowns and blanket testing re gimes that have become the norm over the past three years. That ap proach, which worked in snuffing out Wuhan’s initial outbreak, has become harder to maintain since the arrival of the more infectious Omicron variant and is taking an increasing toll on the world’s second-largest economy.

Rhetoric from top government and health officials indicates they are looking to prepare the Chinese population for wider spread and

a potential exit from Covid Zero. They are prioritizing bolstering lagging vaccination rates among the elderly, one of the biggest road blocks on the country’s reopen ing path. China is also consider ing rolling out a fourth vaccine dose, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.

Rhetorical shift OUTGOING Vice Premier Sun Chunlan—the leader that besides President Xi Jinping has been most closely associated with Co vid Zero—struck an altered tone at a meeting with the NHC and other health experts in Beijing on Wednesday.

“As the Omicron variant be comes less pathogenic, more people get vaccinated and our experience in Covid prevention accumulates, our fight against the pandemic is at a new stage and it comes with new tasks,” she said.

Fear of being transported to what many view as quarantine camps has seen Beijing’s streets deserted as the outbreak intensi fied. Conditions at the sites, often constructed hastily with pre-fab buildings, shipping containers and even tents, can be very poor. Close contacts of people infected with Covid are also required to go into government facilities, though some cities have been easing that rule this week.

Southern Guangdong province said earlier this week that close contacts that meet certain require ments can remain at home instead of going to centralized isolation facilities. Its capital, the manu facturing hub Guangzhou, later replaced lockdowns in four dis tricts with more targeted restric tions, adding to cautious optimism China’s mindset around Covid has turned a corner.  With assistance from Dong Lyu/Bloomberg.

Powell: Fed to push rates longer to combat inflation

By Christopher Rugaber AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON—The Federal Reserve will push rates higher than previously expected and keep them there for an extended pe riod, Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday in remarks likely in tended to underscore the Fed’s single-minded focus on combating stubborn inflation.

Yet in a speech at the Brookings Institution, Powell also signaled that the Fed may increase its key interest rate by a half-point at its December meeting, a smaller boost after four straight three-quarter point hikes. Rate increases could then fall to a more traditional quarter-point size at its Febru ary and March meetings, based on previous Fed forecasts.

Powell said the Fed is seeking to increase its benchmark rate

by enough to slow the economy, hiring, and wage growth, but not so much as to send the US into recession.

It has lifted the rate six times this year to a range of 3.75 percent to 4 percent, the highest in 15 years. Those increases have sharp ly boosted mortgage rates, causing home sales to plunge, while also raising costs for most other con sumer and business loans.

“We think that slowing down at this point is a good way to bal ance the risks,” Powell said. “The time for moderating the pace of rate increases may come as soon as the December meeting,” which will take place December 13-14.

Financial markets rallied in response to Powell’s suggestion that rate increases will slow. The S&P 500 jumped 122 points, or 3.1 percent. It had fallen before Powell spoke.

But Powell also stressed that

smaller hikes shouldn’t be taken as a sign the Fed will let up on its inflation fight anytime soon.

“It is likely that restoring price stability will require holding [in terest rates] at a restrictive level for some time,” Powell said. “His tory cautions strongly against pre maturely loosening policy.”

Powell acknowledged there has been some good news on the infla tion front, with the cost of goods such as cars, furniture, and appli ances in retreat. He also said that rents and other housing costs— which make up about a third of the consumer price index—were likely to decline next year.

But the cost of services, which includes dining out, traveling, and health care, are still rising at a fast clip and will likely be much harder to rein in, he said.

“Despite some promising de velopments, we have a long way to go in restoring price stability,”

Powell said.

The Fed chair singled out strong hiring and wage gains as the main driver keeping services costs high. Paychecks, on average, have jumped about 5 percent in the past year, before inflation, the fastest pace in four decades.

“We want wages to go up strong ly, but they’ve got to go up at a level that is consistent with 2 percent inflation over time,” Powell said. Wage growth at about 3.5 percent a year would fit that criteria, he said.

Slowing the increases in pay checks will likely be difficult, he said, because robust wage gains are largely being driven by a la bor shortage that began during the pandemic and shows no sign of ending soon.

Fed officials had hoped to see the number of people working or looking for work rebound more strongly as the pandemic waned, but that hasn’t happened.

Stocks rally after Fed chair signals slowdown in rate hikes

By Damian J. Troise & Alex Veiga AP Business Writers

WALL Street closed out a solid November with a broad market rally Wednesday after the head of the Federal Reserve said the central bank could soon begin easing up on its aggressive interest rate increases aimed at taming inflation.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell, speaking at the Brookings Institution, reaffirmed that the central bank could begin moderating its pace of rate hikes as soon as December, when its policymaking committee is due to hold its next meeting.

“We have a risk management balance to strike,” Powell said. “And we think that slowing down [on rate hikes] at this point is a good way to balance the risks.”

Stocks roared higher following Powell’s midafternoon remarks. The S&P 500 rose 3.1 percent, snapping a three-day losing streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.2 percent and the Nasdaq composite climbed 4.4 percent.

The major indexes ended November with their second straight month of gains, though they remain in the red for the year.

Powell’s comments sent Treasury yields sharply lower. The yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped to 3.65 percent from 3.75 percent late Tuesday. The yield on the two-year note, which tends to track market expectations of future Fed action, fell to 4.34 percent. It was trading at 4.48 percent late Tuesday and had been as high as 4.53 percent shortly before Powell’s speech.

“Perhaps all that the market was looking for today was confirmation that we’re going to have a smaller rate hike in December,” said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco.

While citing some recent signs that inflation is cooling, Powell stressed that the Fed will push rates higher than previously expected and keep them there for an extended period to ensure inflation comes down sufficiently.

“History cautions strongly against prematurely loosening policy,” Powell said. “We will stay the course until the job is done.”

The path ahead, though, is far from certain.

“The only thing we know is that a smaller rate hike is likely in December,” Hooper said. “We have really very little in the way of visibility of when the pause is going to be.”

Major indexes have been unsteady all year as the economy and financial markets dealt with stubbornly hot inflation and the Fed’s attempt to cool high prices with aggressive interest rate increases.

Wall Street has been hoping that the Fed will slow the scale and pace of its interest rate hikes. It has raised its benchmark interest rate six times since March, driving it to a range of 3.75 percent to 4 percent, the highest in 15 years. The goal is to make borrowing more difficult and generally slow the economy in order to tame inflation.

Those increases have helped send mortgage rates sharply higher, causing home sales to plunge, and it has raised costs for most other consumer and business loans. Many economists expect the US will slip into a recession next year as higher borrowing costs slow economic activity.

In his remarks Wednesday, Powell said the Fed may increase its key interest rate by a smaller increment at its December meeting, only a half-point, after four straight three-quarter point hikes.

“Cutting rates is not something we want to do soon,” Powell said. “That’s why we’re slowing down.”

Investors welcomed the prospect of more modest rate hikes.

More than 95 percent of the stocks in the benchmark S&P 500 index notched gains Wednesday, with technology companies leading the gains. Apple rose 4.9 percent and Microsoft jumped 6.2 percent.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 122.48 points to 4,080.11. The index gained 5.4 percent in November, but remains down about 14 percent so far this year.

The Dow climbed 737.24 points to close at 34,589.77, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq surged 484.22 points to 11,468.

Small company stocks also rallied. The Russell 2000 index rose 50.03 points, or 2.7 percent, to 1,886.58.

Markets in Asia and Europe closed mostly higher. US crude oil prices climbed 3 percent.

The economy has been slowing, but contains strong pockets that have given markets hope that a recession could be avoided. The government on Wednesday said the economy grew at a 2.9 percent annual rate from July through September, an upgrade from its initial estimate.

Consumers have continued spending, despite inflation squeezing wallets, and the overall employment market remains strong.

The employment market remains a big focus for the Fed and investors. Its strength has helped the broader economy, but makes it more difficult to cool inflation.

“If we can get a weaker labor market, we’ll probably get weaker wage pressure,” said Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments. “That’s sort of the last shoe to drop with inflation.”

Economic data on Wednesday showed signs of a softening labor market, though it remains relatively strong historically. The US government reported that job openings dropped in October more than economists had anticipated. Human resources company ADP reported an easing in private sector employment growth in November.

Investors will get more data Thursday on the employment sector with a report on weekly unemployment claims. The closely watched monthly report on the job market will be released on Friday.

Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

The lack of workers reflects a jump in early retirements, the deaths of several hundred thou sand working-age people from Covid-19, and a sharp decline in immigration and slower popula tion growth, Powell said.

With the supply of workers lim ited, the Fed’s higher interest rate policies will have to reduce busi nesses’ demand for new employees to meet the lower level of supply, he added.

Economists generally expect that will mean rising layoffs and a higher unemployment rate, with the economy potentially falling into recession.

But Powell, in remarks during a question-and-answer session, held out hope that employers could cut the near record-high number of job openings they have posted, rather than lay off large numbers of workers.

According to a government re port earlier Wednesday, business es have pared their job vacancies by about 1.5 million since March,

though there are still about 1.7 open jobs for every unemployed worker. That ratio forces many companies to offer higher pay to attract and keep staff.

Still, Powell said that employers could cut those openings further, while engaging in only limited lay offs, as the Fed’s rate hikes slow borrowing and spending.

“I do continue to believe there is a path to a soft or softish land ing...unemployment goes up, but it’s not a hard landing, it’s not a severe recession,” he said.

Last month’s inflation report showed that prices rose 7.7 per cent in October from a year earlier, straining many families’ budgets. That is down, however, from a 9.1 percent peak in June.

Fed officials hope that by tight ening credit they can slow consum er and business spending, reduce hiring and wage growth, and cool inflation. Powell said the Fed’s efforts have slowed demand, and will have to keep it slow “for an extended period.”

RESIDENTS line up to be tested for Covid-19 in Beijing on November 30. BLOOMBERG

Yuri

US House votes to avert rail strike, backs settlement deal

By Kevin Freking & Josh Funk The Associated Press

WASHINGTON—The US House moved urgently to head off the looming nation wide rail strike on Wednesday, passing a bill that would bind companies and workers to a proposed settlement that was reached in September but rejected by some of the 12 unions involved.

The measure passed by a vote of 290-137 and now heads to the Senate. If approved there, it will be signed by President Joe Biden, who urged the Senate to act swiftly.

“Without the certainty of a final vote to avoid a shutdown this week, railroads will begin to halt the move ment of critical materials like chemi cals to clean our drinking water as soon as this weekend,” Biden said. “Let me say that again: without action this week, disruptions to our auto supply chains, our ability to move food to tables, and our ability to remove haz ardous waste from gasoline refineries will begin.”

Business groups including the US Chamber of Commerce and the Ameri can Farm Bureau Federation have warned that halting rail service would cause a devastating $2 billion per day

hit to the economy.

The bill would impose a compro mise labor agreement brokered by the Biden administration that was ulti mately voted down by four of the 12 unions representing roughly 115,000 employees at large freight railroads. The unions have threatened to strike if an agreement can’t be reached before a December 9 deadline.

Lawmakers from both parties ex pressed reservations about overriding the negotiations. The intervention was particularly difficult for Democratic lawmakers who have traditionally sought to align themselves with the politically powerful labor unions that criticized Biden’s move to intervene in the contract dispute and block a strike.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi re sponded to that concern by adding a second vote Wednesday that would add seven days of paid sick leave per year for rail workers covered under the agreement. However, it will take effect only if the Senate goes along and passes both measures. The House passed the sick leave measure as well, but by a much narrower margin, 221207, as Republicans overwhelmingly opposed it, indicating that prospects for passage of the add-on are slim in the evenly divided Senate.

Business groups and the Associa tion of American Railroads trade asso ciation praised the House vote to block the strike but urged senators to resist adding sick time to the deal.

“Unless Congress wants to become the de facto endgame for future nego tiations, any effort to put its thumb on the bargaining scale to artificially advantage either party, or otherwise obstruct a swift resolution, would be wholly irresponsible,” said Ian Jeffer ies, head of the AAR.

On the other hand, the Transpor tation Trades Department labor coali tion that includes all the rail unions praised the vote to add sick time and told lawmakers who voted against it they had “abandoned your working class constituents.”

The focus now turns to the Sen ate where the timing for a vote is un clear. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will meet with Democratic senators Thursday to discuss the rail negotiations. Some Democrats are in sistent that the Senate vote on provid ing seven days of paid sick leave.

“A multibillion-dollar industry that is engaged in buybacks, that has doubled its profit margins during the pandemic should not be able to force

its workers to come in when they are sick and injured,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

But most Republicans are reluc tant to alter the tentative settlement reached in September.

“I think it’s a bad precedent for us to get into the nuances and details of things like this that have been nego tiated for three years,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.

The call for paid sick leave was a major sticking point in the talks along with other quality-of-life concerns. The railroads say the unions have agreed in negotiations over the de cades to forgo paid sick time in favor of higher wages and strong short-term disability benefits.

Jefferies said Tuesday that railroads would consider adding paid sick time in the future, but said that change should wait for a new round of negotiations.

The unions maintain that railroads can easily afford to add paid sick time at a time when they are recording re cord profits. Several of the big rail roads involved in these contract talks reported more than $1 billion profit in the third quarter.

“Quite frankly, the fact that paid leave is not part of the final agreement between railroads and labor is, in my

opinion, obscene,” said Rep. Jim Mc Govern, D-Mass.

Most rail workers don’t receive any paid sick time, but they do have short-term disability benefits that kick in after as little as four days and can replace some of their income for a year or more. Rail workers also receive vacation and personal leave days, but workers say it’s difficult to use those for illnesses because they must typi cally be approved far ahead of time.

In the House, Republicans voiced support for the measure to block the strike, but criticized the Biden adminis tration for turning to Congress to “step in to fix the mess.” Some 79 Republicans voted with the overwhelming majority of Democrats for the bill binding the par ties to the tentative settlement.

But Republicans criticized Pelosi’s decision to add the sick leave bill to the mix, and only three of them voted for that resolution. They said the Biden administration’s own special board of arbitrators recommended higher wages to compensate the unions for not including sick time in its recom mendations.

“Why do we even have the system set up the way it is if Congress is going to come in and make changes to all of the recommendations?” said Rep. Sam

Graves, R-Mo. Pelosi sought to position Demo crats and the Biden administration as defenders of unions, but she said Congress needed to intervene to avoid a strike.

“Families wouldn’t be able to buy groceries or life-saving medications because it would be even more expen sive and perishable goods would spoil before reaching shelves,” Pelosi said. The compromise agreement that was supported by the railroads and a majority of the unions provides for 24 percent raises and $5,000 in bonuses retroactive to 2020 along with one additional paid leave day. The raises would be the biggest rail workers have received in more than four decades. Workers would have to pay a larger share of their health insurance costs, but their premiums would be capped at 15 percent of the total cost of the insurance plan. The agreement did not resolve workers’ concerns about sched ules that make it hard to take a day off and the lack of more paid sick time. On several past occasions, Congress has intervened in labor disputes by en acting legislation to delay or prohibit railway and airline strikes. Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska.

editorial

Sexual violence as weapon of war

Sexual violence in conflict is an appalling aspect of war. It is an abuse of human rights and is happening across current crises—in afghanistan, Iran, Myanmar, the Sahel region and ukraine. To strengthen the global response against sexual violence, the uK government recently hosted the International Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) Conference, with more than 50 countries participating.

In his opening remarks, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said: “Conflict-related sexual violence is morally abhorrent, it is illegal, and yet it is still happening all around the world. We naturally and rightly feel revulsion at the idea of chemical or biological attacks in war. And with our conventions and treaties—and the power of world opinion—those weapons signal a huge escalation and demand an international response. Sexual violence in conflict is equally immoral. It is a clear breach of international law, and should be a line that is never crossed.”

“Today, we stand in solidarity with survivors, determined to bring justice. And I want to send an unequivocal message to those who order, allow or perpetrate sexual violence against women and girls: it isn’t combat; it isn’t strength; it is cowardice. We will not rest in our efforts to protect those potential victims, and prosecute the perpetrators,” Cleverly said.

Speaking at the conference as an advocate and campaigner against sexual violence in conflict, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Nadia Murad said: “It’s time to use every tool we have: sanctions, international trials, and universal jurisdiction to show that sexual violence in conflict will not be tolerated. We must make state and non-state actors think twice about the consequences of these crimes.” Murad was awarded the Peace Prize for her efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. She advocates for survivors of genocide and sexual violence, and she has written about her own experience as a prisoner of ISIS in Iraq.

In an article published by The Telegraph—Castration, gang-rape, forced nudity: How Russia’s soldiers are using sexual violence to terrorise Ukraine—Harriet Barber quoted a United Nations report: “Since Russia’s soldiers first stormed Ukraine, women have been gang-raped, men castrated, children sexually abused, and civilians forced to parade naked in the streets.”

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office said Moscow’s war on Ukraine “is aimed at exterminating the Ukrainian people” and that Russia’s use of sexual violence intends “to spread a state of terror, and cause suffering and fear.”

Dr. Ingrid Elliott, MBE and one of the UK’s Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict experts, said that the Russians have two methods of sexual violence—the first of which is staged during an attack on a village.

“People are dragged out to the streets and paraded, men and women,” Dr. Elliott said. “There are circumstances where the man would be killed and the woman would face sexual violence afterwards. Sometimes the women are rounded up, and held in basements, where repeated sexual violence is inflicted upon them, for days of even weeks.”

The second pattern of abuse happens in detention centers in occupied territories. While it is hard to document this abuse, people who have fled or been liberated have come forward with information.

“What we see then is sexual torture against men,” Dr. Elliott said. This can take the form of genital electrocution, castration or sodomy.

The Kremlin has denied these allegations.

In October, a UN Commission documented what it described as “patterns” of rape and sexual violence inflicted on Ukrainians throughout the war. “Victims range from four to over 80 years old,” the report said, detailing a series of appalling accusations. One Russian soldier forced a four-year-old girl to perform oral sex on him in the presence of her parents, according to the report. The 22-year-old mother was raped, her husband sexually violated, and the pair were also forced to have sexual intercourse in the presence of the armed forces. An 83-year-old woman described how, while her village was occupied by Russian forces, she was raped by a Russian serviceman in front of her physically disabled husband. In the summer, a video circulated showing a Russian soldier with blue surgical gloves castrating a Ukrainian prisoner.

“Sexual violence is a threat to every individual’s right to a life of dignity, and to humanity’s collective peace and security,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “It is no longer seen as an inevitable by-product of war, but constitutes a crime that is preventable and punishable under International Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law and International Criminal Law.”

The UN has recognized this detestable crime as a threat to international peace and security. The menace of sexual violence as a weapon of war requires immediate international condemnation and swift action to deter those attacks before they occur.

The economics of oneness: Its impact on financial health and infrastructure

Thomas L. Lazaro III

EAGLE WATCH

SoCIal capital involves the effective functioning of social groups through interpersonal relationships, shared sense of identity, shared understanding, shared norms, shared values, trust, cooperation, and reciprocity. Previously, we talked about how social capital positively impacts human capital and the natural environment. Today, we are going to look at its effects on financial health and infrastructure.

In the latest survey of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the share of Filipino adults with bank accounts grew to 56 percent in the first quarter of 2022, from 29 percent in 2019. This was higher than Cambodia’s 33 percent, Laos’s 37 percent, Myanmar’s 48 percent and Indonesia’s 52 percent, but lower than Malaysia’s 88 percent, Thailand’s 96 percent, and Singapore’s 98 percent (World Bank Global Findex 2021). Despite this development, challenges remain for the financial inclusion agenda of the BSP. The main barrier is lack of income, and bank transaction costs persist. In addition, over half of savers still keep their money at home.

Effective financial organization and instruments are required, be it at the national (formal) level or at the household (informal) level. Financial institutions are a vital component of everyday economic life to all sectors, specifically to the ultra-poor. Social

trust networks can be utilized to improve the financial well-being of ultra-poor communities.

International Care Ministries (ICM), an NGO that serves the ultrapoor communities in Visayas and Mindanao, leverages on social capital through its Transform program. The program is delivered through weekly group sessions. One of its key focus areas is “Livelihood” in which a trained staff teach business skills, and saving. Program participants are grouped into “savings groups.” SGs are typically five to 20 people who belong to the same community. These groups have their regular meetings at least once a week, and members are required to contribute a small sum each week, which is given to the group’s treasurer and serves as the group’s savings.

Once they have enough savings, the group uses it to put up their SG’s business, making their savings and

income sustainable. At the same time, members may borrow from the group’s savings should a need arises, giving them access to financial services. In a comparable program in ultra-poor communities in Tanzania, a study show that a village’s social capital has a positive effect on the incomes of the households in that village (Narayan and Pritchet, Economic Development and Social Change, 2013). Meanwhile, a study across rural communities in China found out that social capital promotes rural entrepreneurship by sharing financial literacy (Zhao and Li, Frontiers in Psychology, 2021).

Social capital had also its impact on infrastructure. It serves as a mediator for collective action and can help communities build common property resources such as irrigation and water wells. In addition, it can improve access to food, natural resources and physical capital in rural areas. In a study conducted by the World Bank in selected rural areas across the Philippines, increase in social participation in village assemblies for communitydriven development (CDD) is larger in villages that were successful in receiving funding for infrastructure projects. This is followed by an increase in trust toward local officials in those villages (Labonne and Chase, World Bank, 2008).

On the other hand, a study from Wageningen University in the Netherlands found out that social capital can play a significant role in the development of rural infrastructure in Serbia in two ways: first, the development of infrastructure is less com-

plicated when all the actors involved in building a road can work together without problems; second is the use of road network. Modern roads between two rural communities are of no use when two communities do not interact such as when there is no trade or shared activity (Runia, Wageningen University, 2010).

The studies and programs cited here are meant to create and leverage on “bonding” or “micro” social capital, which is based on smaller peer-topeer groups and relationships. This is a kind of social capital that refers to strong relationships that develop between people of similar background, interests, and family. How can the impact of micro social capital in finance and infrastructure be translated to national or “macro” perspective?

Moving forward, the government must foster trust in communities in order to push financial literacy. Financial literacy can lead ultra-poor communities to better income opportunities where successful members begin to participate in the formal economy. Meanwhile, the strong bonding social capital that lobbies public infrastructure funding for poor communities may form a bridging social capital with other communities creating mobility, livelihood, and trade opportunities.

Clearly, true unity and oneness as a nation is key to move forward. One “micro” step can lead to a “macro” leap in nation building.

Musk’s Neuralink hopes to implant computer in human brain in six months

By Ashlee Vance | Bloomberg Opinion

elon MuSK’S neuralink Corp. aims to start putting its coinsized computing brain implant into human patients within six months, the company announced at an event at its Fremont, California headquarters on Wednesday evening.

Neuralink has been refining the product, which consists of a tiny device and electrode-laced wires, along with a robot that carves out a piece of a person’s skull and implants it into the brain. Ongoing discussions with the US Food and Drug Administration have gone well enough for the company to set a target of its first human trials within the next six months, according to Musk.

In typical fashion for an Elon Musk venture, Neuralink is already bounding ahead, aiming implants at other parts of the body. During the event, Musk revealed work on two major products in addition to the brain-computer interface. It’s developing implants that can go

into the spinal cord and potentially restore movement in someone suffering from paralysis. And it has an ocular implant meant to improve or restore human vision.

“As miraculous as that may sound, we are confident that it is possible to restore full-body functionality to someone who has a severed spinal cord,” Musk said at the event. Turning to Neuralink’s vision work, he added that “even if they have never seen before, we are confident they could see.”

The goal of the brain-computer interface, known as a BCI, is initially to allow a person with a debilitating condition—such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or suffering the

aftereffects of a stroke—to communicate via their thoughts. The company demonstrated that with a monkey “telepathically typing” on a screen in front of it. The Neuralink device translates neuronal spikes into data that can be interpreted by a computer. Musk’s hope is that the device could one day become mainstream and allow for the transfer of information between humans and machines. He has long argued that humans can only keep up with the advances being made by artificial intelligence with the help of computer-like augmentations.

“You are so used to being a defacto cyborg,” Musk said. “But if you’re interacting with your phone, you’re limited.”

As has been the case with past Neuralink events, some of the things demonstrated by Musk and his team have already been accomplished in academic settings. The company’s critics have long accused Musk of overhyping Neuralink’s advances and over-promising what the tech-

nology will be able to do in the near future, if ever.

Brain-machine interface technology has been researched and advanced by academia for decades.

Musk’s entry into the arena, however, has spurred a wave of investment from venture capitalists into startups and helped push the field forward at a much more rapid clip.

A couple of similar startups are ahead of Neuralink when it comes to human trials. Synchron Inc., for example, has been able to implant a small stent-like device into the brains of patients in Australia and the US.

The product has made it possible for patients who were unable to move or speak to communicate wirelessly via computers and their thoughts. Onward Inc. has also done breakthrough work restoring some movement in people with spinal cord injuries.

The type of brain surgery proposed by Neuralink is far more invasive than that of Synchron or most

Mr. Thomas L. Lazaro III is a graduate student at the Department of Economics of Ateneo de Manila University.

Higher food prices worsen hunger crisis this holiday season

By Ashraf Khalil | The Associated Press

wASHINGToN—Staffers at Bread for the City, a venerable charity in the nation’s capital, thought they were prepared for this year’s annual pre-Thanksgiving Holiday Helpers food giveaway. The pandemic had faded, but inflation was high, so they budgeted to give out 12,000 meals, 20 percent higher than normal pre-pandemic levels.

But they were quickly overwhelmed, with long lines of clients waiting hours to receive a free turkey and a $50 debit card for groceries. They were forced to shut down three days early after helping 16,000 people, many more than anticipated.

“We don’t want to retraumatize our community by having them wait outside four hours for a turkey,” said Ashley Domm, the charity’s chief development officer. “We are not set up to have hundreds of people lined up on a city street.”

Bread for the City’s experience reflects a larger dynamic playing out across the country. What many Americans hoped would be the first normal holiday season in three years has instead been thrown into a heightened hunger crisis once again, with Christmas on the horizon.

A September report by the Urban Institute estimated that about 1 in 5 adults experienced household food insecurity last summer, about the same as during the first year of the pandemic but a sharp increase from the spring of 2021. Black and Hispanic adults reported higher rates of food insecurity than their white counterparts, according to the report.

“In the pandemic, nobody had jobs and nobody had money,” said Nancy Murphy, a 45-year old caregiver picking up a frozen turkey and groceries last week from a giveaway at the Redeemed Christian Church of God New Wine Assembly church in northeast Washington. “Now they’re back at their jobs but the money isn’t going far enough. It’s still hard.”

The government estimates food prices will be up 9.5 percent to 10.5 percent this year. And that’s squeezing the budgets of many Americans and the food banks that have helped them, especially with the expiration of the massive flow of pandemic relief aid.

“Inflation has been the story of the year,” said Michael Altfest, director of community engagement at the Alameda County Food Bank in Oakland, California.

Altfest said the level of community need remains 50 percent to 70 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels, and about 30 percent of calls to the food bank’s emergency helpline are from first-time callers.

In multiple cases, charities and food banks had prepared for increased numbers due to inflation, only to find the level of need had far exceeded their projections.

The Capital Area Food Bank in Washington originally projected it would need to distribute about 43 million meals during the July 2022-June 2023 budget year. Now

four months into that fiscal year, it already is 22 percent ahead of those predictions.

“That was an educated prediction with a good four or five months of information,” said the food bank’s CEO, Radha Muthiah. “We are always thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas right when everybody’s heading to the beach in summer.”

In Illinois, Jim Conwell of the Greater Chicago Food bank says the need remains elevated. “So we’re purchasing more and we’re spending more on what we do purchase,” he said.

His organization’s network served about 30 percent more households in August 2022, compared to the previous August.

“Families that were just getting their feet back underneath them are experiencing a whole new challenge or even if they have employment, or have several jobs or sources of income, it’s just not going as far as it was two years ago,” he said.

Higher prices are forcing people to make “sacrifices on their food,” Altfest said.

For example, he said, the price of chicken has more than doubled— from 78 cents per pound last year to $1.64 per pound this year. Estimates from the Farm Bureau set the cost of turkey as 21 percent higher than last year. And market researcher Datasembly estimates that a 16-ounce box of stuffing costs 14 percent more than last year, while a 5-pound bag of Russet potatoes averages 45.5 percent more.

Mike Manning, president of the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank in Louisiana, draws a distinction between the increased hunger levels sparked by the pandemic and the current crisis. During the pandemic, millions of people’s jobs and incomes essentially disappeared, creating an immediate wave of need that he compared to the aftermath of a hurricane.

But the current crisis has been a slow and steady rise, starting in late February and still climbing. Manning said his food bank has seen a 10 percent to 15 percent rise in local food insecurity in just the past two months.

“You’re talking to people who are on lower incomes and they’re working multiple jobs—just think of the cost of them to get from one job to the other with the gas eating up whatever extra they’re trying to make,” he said. “What are they going to do? Do they give up gas so they can’t get to work or sacrifice on food and come back and ask us for help?” Associated Press reporters Anita Snow in Phoenix and DeeAnn Durbin in Detroit contributed to this report.

reporter has visited the primates on a handful of occasions. They appeared well cared for and did not show any ill effects from the implants.

Re-covering cultures

Tito Genova Valiente annoTaTions

How much do we know about our cultures? The question looks rhetorical but consider it a direct affront to us. If we— “natives” and inhabitants—do not study our cultures, then how can we understand it? without such understanding, how can we ever own it?

The question of cultures is a crisis in discipline. To those who believe in history (not even histories), the sources are historians, whose sources of facts and ideas are archives.

Around us abound policies and programs that are informed by historical facts. Suffice it to say that there is a cluster of discipline that critiques historical thinking as in Walter Benjamin’s notion of dialectical thinking and textured historicity. In this approach, the past, the present and the future are apprehended in dreaming state: the present has been dreamt of in the past, and present tosses itself into the future, which is now dreamt of. But what about those who take cultures and our understanding of it as a path to forming an identity, generating a critical mass for nation formation, where do we situate ourselves in our search for a definition of cultures? While it has always been accepted that defining culture has always been the province of anthropologists, anthropology was the methodology that dominated the discourse of cultures.

When one thinks of a place—be it a village, a town or a tiny island— one is immediately buoyed by the notion that we can learn “something” about it. The method to learn about the culture of that place is through ethnography, a method that is so popular (in terms of familiarity) that even non-anthropologists resort to the approach. It is Bronislaw Malinowski, however, who is credited for inventing the term “ethnography.” Freely using ethnography with the anthropological enterprise, Malinowski in Argonauts of the Western Pacific is known for emphasizing a fastidious participant observation so that the researcher can capture the

“imponderabilia of everyday life.” He was also adamant in the anthropologist seeking to get the native exegesis, the native’s perspective.

The student of anthropology, however, must have known by this time that, after the death of Malinowski, his wife stumbled upon a diary showing his strong aversion against the “natives” whose lives he fastidiously praised as important not only to themselves but to the anthropologist’s body of knowledge. That must have been a foreboding of the future when anthropologists presently critique their training and the skills they have developed for data gathering and analysis.

Have the books discussing our place and its cultures really captured the cultures of our human group? Having responded to the identities defined in such documents, what are we to do now that ethnography is not merely immersing and doing fieldwork?

What triggered these questions is this book, Anthropology and Ethnography are Not Equivalent, edited by Irfan Ahmad. The book itself is a response to the paper of Tim Ingold entitled “That’s Enough About Ethnography.” For Ingold, according to Irfan Ahmad, “a monograph that records ‘the life and times of a people’ may justifiably be called ethnographic.”

However, according to Ingold, “it is misleading to call our encounters with people, to the fieldwork in which these encounters take place, to the methods by which we prosecute it, or to the knowledge that grows therefrom, ethnographic.”

Throughout the said book, the topic of objectification surfaces. One of the authors in the collection, Hatsuki Aishima, quotes Ingold in

his differentiation between anthropology and ethnography, where the latter aims to describe in detail and with accuracy a sociocultural phenomenon, while anthropology “seek[s] a generous comparative but nevertheless critical understanding of human being and knowing in the one world we all inhabit.”

For Ingold, a position Aishima appears to espouse, anthropology is “a practice of observation grounded in participatory dialogue.” This brings to the fore the old caricature of the anthropologists as smug and detached. We are seeing in this book a new claim that eschews the practice of making field sites as “sites” or “cases.” What the book asks us is to build a discipline that, following Aishima, is an enterprise with rather than of.

Aishima in the chapter, Correspondence, echoes Ingold describing anthropology as “essentially a mutual learning process, not mere ethnographic data gathering and writing about them.”

Rethinking thus, we need to ask what happens now to the bulk of materials on Philippine cultures written by social scientists that did not even get to know the local language? What level of participation must have been achieved by those whose grants

Statement of grave concern over EO 171

marketing support to farmers. He also prioritized the condonation of land amortization debts of agrarian reform farmer-beneficiaries.

his political will in prioritizing local food production over imports and his ability to rein in economic managers who are pursuing a different tack.

allowed them to immerse but for a minimal exposure?

The notion of the expert is now suspect. Aishima mentions Arjun Appadurai and others whose critique of anthropological techniques surfaced individuals treating places and people as fieldwork sites that are isolated, seemingly detached from other societies. This is ironic because nothing much is really produced in the field, with the anthropologists leaving the area and writing the report far, far from the field, in the comfort of their home, the documentation interrupted by the regular sessions of individuals in the coziness of their own spaces.

The crisis is even deeper upon realizing how, following Aishima reading Ingold, there is a gap, a “fictional boundary we construct between ‘ethnographic data’ we gather in the field and ‘knowledge’ we impart in lecture halls.”

Are we living then within that which we define, or do we define that where we find ourselves in? Oh, that sounds like philosophizing, a discipline that has not questioned itself yet. Let us be grounded and go back to cultures instead.

E-mail: titovaliente@yahoo.com

ident Pork Producers Federation of the Philippines, Inc.

5. ROGER V. NAVARRO, President Philippine Maize Federation (PhilMaize)

IN his inaugural address, President Marcos pointed out that food is not only a tradeable commodity or source of livelihood. Food, he stressed, is an “existential imperative” because “without it, people weaken and die; societies come apart.” Our Chief Executive questioned a trade policy that prescribes that “a country should not produce but import what other countries make more of and sell cheapest.”

On the other hand, some forces within the Marcos administration are apparently resisting the President’s policy declarations. They seek to continue the past regime’s trade liberalization agenda of opening our local markets to more and cheaper imports. This is highlighted by the veiled attempt of our current economic managers to extend the validity of Executive Order 171— after Congress begins its December recess. The EO was originally issued by President Duterte in May 2021 purportedly to address the rising prices of pork, rice and corn by lowering their tariffs until the end of 2022. Now, they want to keep the low tariffs until end-December 2023, citing the lingering effects of Covid and the war in Ukraine.

Likewise, we urge the President to stand firm on his commitment to protect and support our farmers and fishers in connection with the Philippines’s proposed membership in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade agreement. Entry into any trade or economic deal must be based on equality, reciprocity, mutual benefit and national interest.

6. ARSENIO TANCHULING, President Alyansa Agrikultura

7. RAFAEL V. MARIANO, Chairman Emeritus Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP)

8. HERMINIO AGSALUNA, President Pambansang Kilusan ng mga Samahang Magsasaka (PAKISAMA)

other competitors in the industry. A patient must have a chunk of their skull removed and allow wires to be implanted into their brain tissue. Neuralink has been doing tests for years on primates to prove that the surgery is safe and that the implant can remain inside the brain for long periods of time without causing harm.

Animals rights groups have been critical of the primates’ past treatment when Neuralink relied on a partner laboratory for some of its experiments. Neuralink brought its animal husbandry program inhouse years ago and has endeavored to make it an example for others to follow. Over the past two years, this

Neuralink’s advantage over its rivals is one of processing power. Musk’s bet is that the more invasive surgery coupled with greater computing capabilities will help Neuralink’s hardware achieve better results and restore more functions in humans than competing products.

Musk’s company has already missed some of the billionaire’s ambitious timelines for placing the BCI implant in people. In meetings with his team over the past several months, Musk, being Musk, urged his engineers in blunt terms to work faster and harder. “We will all be dead before something useful happens,” Musk told his team during a recent product review meeting.

He implied that relying primarily on imports makes the Philippines vulnerable to supply disruptions from external factors like the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and climate change.

President Marcos assumed the leadership of the Department of Agriculture “to make it clear to everyone what a high priority we put on the agricultural sector.” He underscored the need to boost local production and reorganize the DA bureaucracy.

In his first national budget submission, the President raised significantly the DA’s budget—proposing a 40 percent increase. He launched initiatives to address rising fertilizer prices, fast track the construction of farm-to-market roads, and provide

Despite the huge import volumes engendered by EO 171, consumers continue to reel from high food prices. The surge in imports has not benefitted the buying public, whereas it has depressed farm gate prices.

The National Treasury has lost billions in revenues due to reduced customs duties. Cheap imports have further discouraged our farmers from sustaining and expanding their production, thus causing even more supply shortages and increasing our dependence on imports. This vicious cycle will persist—for as long as we do not rationalize and align our trade policy with our sustainable food selfsufficiency objective.

What President Marcos does with EO 171 will be a litmus test of

Lastly, we ask the President to broaden and deepen consultations and participative processes with farmers and other primary stakeholders by the Department of Agriculture and other agencies dealing with the agro-fisheries sector. This will contribute to better formulation, implementation and monitoring of policies and programs. In particular, we remain extremely concerned about the DA’s unliquidated budget usage—totaling P22 billion—in 2020. Moreover, the 2023-2028 Philippine Development Plan is being finalized by the National Economic and Development Authority—with little or no involvement of farmers, fishers, and their organizations!

1. NICANOR M. BRIONES, Party-List Representative Agricultural Sector Alliance of the Philippines (AGAP)

2. DIOSCORO A. GRANADA, President Federation of Free Farmers (FFF)

3. ELIAS JOSE M. INCIONG, President United Broiler Raisers Association (UBRA)

4. ROLANDO E. TAMBAGO, Pres-

9. GREGORIO A. SAN DIEGO, Chairman Philippine Egg Board Association and United Broiler Raisers Association

10. CHARLES R. AVILA, Executive Director and Spokesperson Confederation of Coconut Farmers Organizations of the Philippines

11. EDUARDO MORA, Chairperson Pambansang Kaisahan ng mga Magbubukid sa Pilipinas (PKMP)

12. ROY M. RIBO, National Coordinator Kalipunan ng mga Maliliit na Magniniyog ng Pilipinas (KAMMPIL)

13. ASIS PEREZ, Convenor Tugon Kabuhayan

14. RENE E. OFRENEO, President Integrated Rural Development Foundation (IRDF)

15. MARLON P. PALOMO, Executive Director Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM)

This joint statement has been approved by the above-listed organizations and signed by their respective official representatives.

Certified by: Leonardo Q. Montemayor Board Chairman

Federation of Free Farmers

By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo @akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror

FOREIGN investors are clearly encouraged to put up hotels and restaurants in the Philip pines, with official data showing the growth in net foreign direct invest ment (FDI) in the sector outpacing the growth in total net FDI.

D ata from the Bangko Sen tral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed net FDI in accommodation and food service activities grew by 14.75 percent to US$9.6 million (P540.6 million) from January to August 2022, even as total net FDI dropped by 17.13 percent to $907.46 million (P51.09 billion) versus the same period in 2021.

Prior to the pandemic, net FDI in accommodation and food service ac tivities were recorded at $20.64 million (P1.16 billion) for the full year 2019.

A s this developed, Tourism Sec retary Christina Garcia Frasco told participants at the recent 22nd World Travel & Tourism Coun cil Global Summit in Riyadh that the Filipino brand of hospitality known throughout the world, not just in the tourism sector but in creating a favorable business cli mate, should be able to attract foreign investors to set up hotels and resorts in the Philippines.

I n a panel discussion on en hancing the livelihood of com munities, she stressed that the Marcos Jr. administration has

identified tourism as a priority: “This means that any investor that will come to the Philippines can expect the full and unequivocal support of government to ensure ease of doing business, incen tives for investments, and the full cooperation of local government units when they put up [hotels in] the destination.”

Distinct Filipino hospitality SHE added,  “The Filipino people [are] one of the best reasons why you should invest in the Philippines; the Filipino hospitality is distinct around the world. It’s felt wherever you may go, as we are in the accommodation and services sector, in many sectors of the tourism industry.”

S he cited Saudi Arabia, which hosted the latest WTTC Global Sum mit, as an example where investors can see Filipino hospitality at its finest, as it employs “over 800,000 Filipino workers, and therefore in vestors can expect that their busi nesses will surely flourish and will have repeat customers.”

A dditional data from property developer Santos Knight Frank showed 3,065  in rooms being con structed by various hotels in the third and fourth quarter of 2022. Another 2,059 hotel rooms are in the pipeline from 2023 to 2025.

Frasco also tried to dispel the popular view that Philippine resorts were very expensive. “The inherent advantage of the Philippines is that it has 7,641 islands across our beautiful

archipelago, that host many accom modation sectors and resorts, not just expensive ones, but the affordable ones as well. What we have been try ing to do is to equalize tourism promo tion and development by continuing to develop our key destinations such as Cebu, Palawan and Boracay on one hand, while giving an opportunity for lesser-known destinations to come to the fore, to be developed and lent with the expertise of the Department of Tourism and its attached agencies.”

More tourism awards

MEANWHILE , the Philippines picked up more awards and recogni tion from travel organizations and publications.

In a news statement, the DOT said the Philippines was recognized anew as the World’s Leading Country at the Uzakrota Global Travel Awards 2022 by Turkish travel organization Uzakrota, after its first win in 2020. In second and third place were Malaysia and the Dominican Republic, respectively.

T he Philippines also racked up 13 awards in US-based Scuba Div ing Magazine’s 2023 Readers’ Choice Awards, including the top honors for Shore Diving. The country ranked sec ond in Macro Life, Cavern/Cave and Grotto Diving, Beginners, Photog raphy, and Best Value categories; third in Wreck Diving, Snorkeling, and Health of Marine Environment; fourth in Wall Diving and Advanced; fifth in Best Overall; and ninth in the Big Animals grouping for the Pacific and Indian Ocean cluster.

Marcos eyeing G2G sub in WPS joint exploration

By Samuel P. Medenilla @sam_medenilla

PRESIDENT Ferdinand

“Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr. said he

alternative

a government-to-government (G2G) agreement with China to push through the long-stalled plans for a joint oil exploration in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) with the Asian giant.

D uring the Kadiwa ng Pasko Event in Quezon City on Thursday, Marcos said the issues of the “con stitutionality” of the G2G agree ment has hampered efforts for a Philippine-China exploration.

So we are saying, the Philippines should be followed [in the terms of the exploration], while the Chinese said it should be them. So that is the roadblock,” Marcos told reporters in Filipino in an interview.

C hina continues to reject the

2016 Hague arbitral ruling, which invalidated its territorial claims in the WPS, which falls within the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

T he issue prompted former Pres ident Rodrigo R. Duterte to scrap the joint oil exploration talks last June with China upon the recom mendation of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Former Foreign Affairs Secre tary Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. said before stepping down as chief of

the DFA that he urged termination of the three-year discussions—de spite best efforts with his coun terpart, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi—since it would have trig gered a “constitutional crisis.”

U nder the 1987 Constitution, the Philippine government should have full control of exploration, development and use of natural resources.

O n Thursday, Marcos said the joint exploration may be realized through another arrangement.

“ I think there might be other ways so it will not have to be G2G or I don’t know. We’ll have to find a way because we really need it,” Marcos said.

T he government is currently trying to develop more indigenous sources of oil and gas to bring down the local prices of both resources as well as local power rates.

“ For China, that [new oil sources] are a small thing. But for us, that is a big thing so we need to fight for it and utilize it,” Marcos said.

I n October, Chinese Ambassa dor Huang Xilian said the Chinese government  also wants the legal issues on the talks to be addressed as soon as possible so the oil explo ration could finally start.

Ople eyes busting of cyber scam, human trafficking syndicates

By Butch Fernandez @butchfBM

THE revelations on the activi ties of a human-trafficking syndicate victimizing job seekers forced to work in cyberscam entities in Southeast Asia would hopefully speed up the dismantling of both the recruiters’ activities and the operations of the crypto scam mers, mostly based in remote parts of Myanmar.

Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) Secretary Susan “Toots” Ople aired this hope in a radio in terview on Thursday, days after Senator Risa Hontiveros’s com mittee guested three human traf ficking victims, including a young man who narrowly escaped being sent to a Myanmar cyberscam out fit by fleeing from his recruiters at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) when he sensed something amiss.

H is recruiter’s agent at the air port had scolded him for lining up at Immigration, pulled him out of there and met him elsewhere, giv ing him his passport with a fake BI stamp and a fake airport ID card purportedly saying he is an employee of a food concessionaire. That pass would allow him access— without passing through immigra tion—to the final boarding area for his flight to Thailand.

E arlier victims interviewed by the Hontiveros panel were initial ly deployed either to Thailand or

Malaysia, but ended up in remote “BPO” outfits in remote parts of Myanmar.

From this man’s testimony and those of two women who both experienced  being trafficked to Myanmar via Thailand and were later rescued, Senate probers are now demanding answers from im migration and airport authorities.

A lso on Thursday, Hontive ros stressed the need for greater ASEAN cooperation, given that the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand are apparently the syn dicates’ favorite jump-off points for deploying victim jobseekers, who are then sent to “virtual slave camps” in Myanmar. Authorities are also checking out reports of similarly trafficked workers in Laos and Cambodia.

I n Thursday’s radio interview, Secretary Ople confirmed accounts

that the illegally trafficked Filipino workers were made to believe they will work as customer service rep resentatives in Thailand or Malay sia, but were then brought overland to Myanmar. They were routinely punished—with physical beatings, exhaustion—if they failed to meet “quota,” meaning, they did not dupe enough clients online, mostly from western countries. They are forced to lure these clients to invest in what turned out to be crypto scams, Ople said, alluding to reports re ceived by authorities.

A t least 47 illegally trafficked Filipinos are reportedly asking to be rescued from various slave camps in Myanmar, Senate prob ers learned earlier.

“ Moving forward, there have to be clear transborder solu tions,” Hontiveros stressed, not ing that the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia are bound by the ASEAN convention against traf ficking in persons which is why “there should be tighter coordi nation  para sugpuin ang krimeng ito  [to stop this crime].”

A t the same time, the rescued trafficked victims in other coun tries  must first be brought home, she added, calling for faster coor dination among government agen cies like the Department of Foreign Affairs, DMW and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), “as well as coordination with authorities of concerned for eign countries.”

PBBM eyes poll losers for possible Cabinet posts

PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bong bong” R. Marcos, Jr. said he will be considering candi dates, who lost in the May 2022 polls, for Cabinet posts by next year.

“ I don’t think that’s any—that’s a secret to anyone that at the end of the first year, the candidates, they will now join the mix of possible nominees,” Marcos told reporters in an interview in Quezon City last Thursday.

Under the 1987 Constitution,

“no candidate who has lost in any election, shall within one year after election, be appointed to any office in the government or any governmentowned or -controlled corporation or in any of its subsidiaries.”

M arcos made the remark when asked if he is considering any changes in his Cabinet members, which still have several officersin-charge (OIC).

I think I am happy with the situation as it is now. We’ll see. We

alwaysthese things are revisited especially every year at the end of the first year,” Marcos said.

T he President said he is also currently satisfied with the perfor mances of Department of Health (DOH) OIC Maria Rosario Vergeire and Department of National De fense OIC Jose Faustino.

My only concern is for the tasks at hand, are completed. So far, [these jobs] are being done,” Marcos said. Samuel P. Medenilla

is now exploring an

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DMCI 9-mo order book dips as headwinds stunt demand

By VG Cabuag @villygc

ConstruCtion firm D.M. Consunji inc. (DMCi) said its order book recorded a decline in nine months due to the slowdown in project bidding and contract awarding from both the public and private sectors.

DMCI said its order book slipped by 8 percent to P45.3 billion at endSeptember from the P49.3 billion posted at the end of 2021.

t his, after P8.4 billion worth of

contracts and P1 billion in change orders were recorded against P13.3 billion in construction accomplishments last year.

“We expect formidable head-

winds over the medium-term on persisting high inflation, rising interest rates and anemic demand for commercial and office spaces,” DMCI President and CeO Jorge A. Consunji said.

“Public infrastructure projects could provide some upside but it would still depend on the rollout strategy and spending priorities of the national government.”

In the third quarter alone, DMCI bagged Contract Package 102 of the Metro Manila Subway Project, a primary pipeline project in Muntinlupa, a multi-specialty building in Manila, among others.

DMCI reported a nine-month net income of P796 million, 1 percent higher than the P785 million recorded a year ago.

t he company’s listed parent firm DMCI Holdings Inc. reported a P27.6billion income for the period, double its P13.5-billion earnings last year, breaking its full-year profit record of P18.9 billion in 2013.

t he previous record was reached after DMCI Holdings recognized a one-time gain of P8.4 billion from the sale of some of its shares in Maynilad Water Services Inc. excluding a non-recurring gain of P1.2 billion last year owing to the deferred tax remeasurement in relation to the Corporate recovery and ta x Incentives for enterprises Act and DMCI’s gain on land sale, consolidated core net income from January to September rose even faster at 124 percent to P27.6 billion from the previous P12.3 billion.

CPG to open hotel in Mandaluyong

Century Properties Group Inc. (CPG), the property development arm of the Antonio family, has forayed into the hospitality sector via the novotel Suites Manila at Acqua in Mandaluyong City which will open by the middle of the month.

t he opening of the hotel is timed with the easing of movement restrictions amid the government’s continued push for tourism, the company said. “December is an opportune time for novotel Suites Manila to open as Century Properties can actively participate and address the demand surge for tourism and leisure travel, which is also in line with the government’s thrust to promote the industry,” CPG President and CeO Jose Marco r Antonio said.

Antonio said the increased number of multinational companies based in taguig and Makati also gives the company a chance to accommodate the demand for intimate

gatherings and meetings given our strategic location.

t he Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported in the second quarter that “the Department of tourism [DOt] is forecasting the recovery of the country’s domestic travel sector by 2022 at the earliest when demand returns to 90 percent of the 2019 level, and by 2024 at the latest. t he DOt is focusing on the recovery of the tourism sector through the promotion of domestic travel, with many overseas source markets still closed.”

“We are excited to welcome tourists, as well as residents and their guests at Acqua Private residences so that they can enjoy the hotel’s food and beverage offerings,” novotel Suites Manila General Manager r aul Aquino said. t he hotel is accessible via various points in Makati and Mandaluyong cities, mainly via the estrella-Pantaleon and MakatiMandaluyong bridges that cross the Pasig r iver. A few minutes away is

eDSA, which has a direct link to the airport via the Skyway.

novotel Suites Manila marks the first hospitality venture for CPG, a company historically known for its high-rise condominiums. recently, Century forayed into affordable housing, through Phirst Park Homes and premium low-density developments with Century nu liv.

Conceptualized in partnership with hotel powerhouse Accor and wholly operated by CPG, the hotel is housed in the sixth and final tower of Acqua Private residences.

“We are proud to carry the novotel name, along with other 500 establishments globally. It’s a trusted brand, known for excellent rooms and service. It’s our pleasure to work with Accor,” Antonio said.

t he 152-room mid-scale hotel is owned by CPG and its subsidiary Century Acqua Lifestyle Corp., which handles CPG’s fractional ownership business.

t he tower’s upper floors

He A De D by Board of Directors for Partnerships and Implementations, Charlie Fernando and Sharon ta n— the Invest to Donate Foundation (I t D F) donated P100,000 to the Center for Community tr ansformation—through CC t Head of Partnership Arlene Sy, to help fund the latter’s relief operations for the victims of ty phoon Paeng in October.

Since being founded in 2013 by Josiah Go of Waters Philippines, the I t D F has been supporting relief operations by using investments from business leaders and professionals, who share a united vision of raising money from investments, and donating the entire profit to disaster victims. Among their first beneficiaries were the Philippine r e d Cross and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for the victims of ty phoon r u by in 2014. r e cently, the I t D F proved itself a blessing to its coworkers in the field of disaster response once again.

Just last month, another Super t y phoon, locally known as Bagyong ‘Paeng’ struck the country. Further intensified by ty phoon Queenie, the storms reportedly killed over 100 people and affected thousands of families due to intense flooding and landslides across the Visayas and

Mindanao regions. t h e Center for Community tr ansformation (CC t ), through the help of the I t D F and other partner organizations, urgently responded by distributing thousands of food packs and mobilizing local staff teams and volunteers to minister to the victims. n o t less than 1000 households were assisted and received relief goods. Despite the massive damage and the discouraging number of casualties, quick disaster response became a reliable source of comfort and hope to the grieving families.

For over 30 years, CC t has centered its mission on helping

the needy and restoring hope in hopeless seasons, including times of calamities just like this. t h e organization has been blessed with thousands of big-hearted volunteers located across the entire country, which makes it easier to extend help even to the most remote places. By God’s grace, generous partner organizations like the I t D F are also continuously being sent to work alongside CC t in its numerous programs and ministry initiatives.

t h e Center for Community tr ansformation is currently located in 14 regions across the Philippines.

are allocated for residential condominium units, which have been sold out. VG Cabuag

By Lenie Lectura @llectura

ACen Corp. said t hursday it expects to complete the acquisition of Sinocalan Solar Power Corp. (SPPC) in the next few weeks.

A share purchase agreement for the sale of Sungrow Power renewables Corp. (Sungrow) and Havilah AAA Holdings Corp.’s (Havilah) shares in SPPC was signed with ACen last november 29. SSPC is the developer of the 60megawatt (MW) solar power plant in Pangasinan.

“Completion of the acquisition is expected to occur by December 15, 2022, subject to agreed conditions precedent. (ACen) will wholly own SSPC upon completion of the acquisition,” the company told the stock exchange.

Sungrow is a leader in the research

and development of solar inverters and a broad product portfolio offering PV inverter solutions, energy storage systems and floating PV plant solutions.

ACen is the listed energy platform of the Ayala Group. It has about 4,000 MW of attributable capacity in the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, and Australia, with a renewable share of 87 percent, which is among the highest in the region.

t he company’s aspiration is to be the largest listed renewables platform in Southeast Asia, with a goal of reaching 20,000MW in renewables capacity by 2030.

Meanwhile, ACe enexor, Inc., the oil and gas arm of the Ayala Group, announced t hursday that it has changed its name to ene X energy Corp. It earlier disclosed plans to put up a 1,100MW combined cycle power plant in Batangas.

Ayala unit to complete deal to own Sinocalan solar plant this month

PhilHealth goaded to use online pay setup

By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz @joveemarie

LAWMAKERS have filed a bill mandating the use of online payment, among others, by the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).

Davao City Rep. Paolo Z. Duterte, Benguet Rep. Eric G. Yap and ACTCIS Partylist Reps. Edvic G. Yap and Jeffrey Soriano have filed House Bill (HB) 4808 that aims to establish a digital-based system that is designed to complement and improve the delivery of physical healthcare services.

Duterte said newly-appointed acting PhilHealth President and CEO Emmanuel R. Ledesma Jr. can begin expanding the application of digital solutions in the health insurer’s operations by allowing the use of more convenient online payment platforms, such as e-wallets, in settling PhilHealth premiums.

Making premium payments easy and convenient will encourage members, especially those who are voluntarily paying, to keep contributing to the PhilHealth fund, Duterte said.

Duterte also suggested that Ledesma broaden the implementation of PhilHealth’s eKonsulta system, which is a web-based standalone application that can be used to encode patient data and medical records. This can help harmonize the health data of patients and ensure that accurate and substantial medical histories are used in diagnosing them.

The eKonsulta can be incorporated into the proposed National eHealth System (NeHS) under HB 4808, which also covers the use of e-prescriptions, e-pharmacies, and telemedicine, Duterte said.

Complementary

DUTERTE said the NeHS recognizes the use of digital solutions as supplemental and complementary with other traditional healthcare delivery methods to the extent allowable by law, especially in supporting the primary healthcare needs and services in GIDAs.

He noted that telemedicine or online medical consultations are now widely used in other countries like China and Singapore so that patients can easily book appointments via the Internet without waiting for hours inside doctors’ offices.

In the Philippines, the use of telemedicine boomed during the pandemic, when the onsite delivery of health services became limited.

One important aspect of the NeHS is that it will operate within a health sector blueprint that ensures health and health-related data are made available and accessible anytime and anywhere to various stakeholders, including medical experts and researchers who can monitor outbreaks and help prevent the spread of diseases, Duterte said.

Key players

THE Department of Health (DOH) and PhilHealth, in partnership with the private sector, are the key players in implementing the NeHS.

The DOH, as the lead implementing agency, is mandated to transform and strengthen its existing Knowledge Management and Information Technology Service (KMITS) into a full-fledged National eHealth Information and Services Bureau (NeHISB). This body will perform the overall management and administration of the NeHS.

It will also serve as the secretariat of the DOH-chaired eHealth Policy and Coordinating Council, which is tasked under the bill to provide and promote relevant policies and guidelines to effectively implement the NeHS.

Duterte said the use of digital technology to support the delivery of healthcare can help detect symptoms in patients in the early stages of their ailments and save lives.

“We need to reimagine the way we bring quality health care to our countrymen, especially to those living in geographically-isolated and disadvantaged areas where medical professionals are scarce,” Duterte said.

Banking&Finance

SSS, GSIS pay-outs to hit ₧33.09B

By VG Cabuag @villygc

STATE pension fund managers announced last Thursday they will release into the system a combined P33.09 billion (nearly $588 million at current exchange rates) when benefits are disbursed to their respective pensioners next week.

Social Security System (SSS) President and CEO Michael G. Regino said the pension fund for private workers is set to release around P29.74 billion (about $529.06 million) covering 3.36 million pensioners. The latter will be receiving their 13th month and December pensions starting at the first week of the month.

The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), on the other hand, said it is set to release a total amount of P3.35 billion in Christmas cash gift to more than 328,000 oldage and disability pensioners.

Alam namin ang Christmas cash gift ay hinihintay talaga ng aming

GSIS pensioners at ito ang makapagpapasaya sa kanila ngayong Pasko Kaya simula December 6, na-credit na sa e-card nila ang kanilang cash gift at pwede na nilang i-withdraw,” President and General Manager Jose Arnulfo A. Veloso was quoted in a statement as saying. [We know our GSIS pensioners are really waiting for the Christmas cash gift and this will make them happy this Christmas. So starting December 6, their cash gift has been credited to their ecard and they can now withdraw it.]

SSS batches ACCORDING to Regino, they also

pushed for the early crediting of the 13th month and December 2022 pensions this year “so that our pensioners can withdraw them ahead of the holiday rush.”

The SSS chief said the fund manager released the first batch of pensions covering pensioners with dates of contingency within the first to the 15th day of the month.

The second batch, on the other hand, is set to be released on December 4, covering pensioners with dates of contingency within the 16th up to the last day of the month.

Since December 4 falls on a Sunday, pensioners who are set to receive their pensions on the said date can expect that these will be credited to their account starting on the last working day before it, which is December 2.

Regino said the SSS requested its accredited non-PESONet participating banks to release the pensions to their SSS-pensioner clients no later than December 4. He added they also requested the Philippine Postal Corp. to expedite the delivery of the checks of its pensioners who are receiving their pensions in this manner.

“Since December 1988, we have been granting our pensioners the 13th month pension, which is equiva-

lent to their respective monthly pensions,” Regino said. “This additional financial assistance or Christmas gift is our way of thanking them for their support to the SSS during their working years.”

Pensioners who are qualified to receive the 13th month pension are SS retirement pensioners, SS and Employees’ Compensation survivor, and total disability pensioners, including partial disability pensioners with pension duration of not less than 12 months.

GSIS pensioners ACCORDING to Veloso, GSIS pensioners will receive an amount equivalent to their 1-month pension up to a maximum of P10,000.

Qualified to receive the Christmas cash gift are old-age and disability pensioners under the following laws and issuance: Republic Act (RA) 8291 (GSIS Act of 1997); Presidential Decree 1146 (Revised GSIS Act of 1977); and, RA 660 (“Magic 87”) who are receiving their regular monthly pensions and are living as of November 30, 2022.

In particular, the GSIS said these are pensioners who availed of the 5-year lump sum benefit and who

BPI branches get green building certification from IFC

THE Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) announced it has set a new milestone in the country’s sustainable banking operations as BPI Iloilo Solis and BPI Loyola Katipunan became the first two bank branches to earn Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies (EDGE) certification of World Bank Group member International Finance Corporation (IFC).

EDGE is a green building certification with quantitative metrics, providing cost-effective strategies to reduce energy use, water use, and embodied energy in materials. BPI has three more branches in the pipeline for EDGE certification.

“Next year, we have 25 branches planned for re-construction to also achieve EDGE certification. This forms part of our vision to lead in sustainable business practices in the Philippine banking industry and build a better Philippines—one family, one community at a time,” said BPI Head of Consumer Banking Maria Cristina L. Go.

The certification of BPI Iloilo Solis and BPI Loyola Katipunan branches was issued by Philippine Green Building Initiative, Inc. (PGBI), an IFCaccredited certification body.

In a recent joint letter, PGBI President & Chairman Leandro A. Conti and PGBI EDGE Program Director Ramon D. Aguilos congratulated

BPI for the achievement, noting, “Our assessment confirms the auditor’s report that BPI Iloilo Solis resource-efficient design will result in reductions of 22 percent in energy, 23 percent in water, and 76 percent in materials’ embodied energy compared to a local base case.”

As for BPI Loyola Katipunan, PGBI’s assessment confirmed the auditor’s report that its “resource-efficient design will result in reductions of 25 percent in energy, 31 percent in water and 84 percent in materi-

als’ embodied energy compared to a local base case.”

Since 2017, BPI has been guiding real estate project owners on complying with IFC EDGE’s resource efficiency standards. This forms part of BPI’s long-standing commitment of embedding sustainability in the conduct of business to generate positive value for the society and environment.

In line with this, BPI also continues to harness the power of technology by adopting a phygital approach—a combination of

Starting a Sustainability Journey

SUSTAINABILITY used to have different meanings at different times to different people but gained a more universally common and acceptable definition over time.

The term “sustainability” is derived from the Latin word sustinere, which translates “to sustain” and means to maintain, support, uphold, or endure, connoting the ability to continue over a long period of time.

The modern use of the term, however, was strongly influenced by the 1983 United Nations (UN) Commission on Environment and Development, also known as the Brundtland Commission, in its 1987 report titled “Our Common Future.”

In the 4th Annual Sustainability Summit of my organization, the Global Compact Network Philippines (GCNP), three UN Global Compact Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Pioneers gave the following advice on how to start your sustainability journey, which is applicable to all organizations, including associations:

1. Start small and “where you are.” From the association context

in the Philippines, I can cite two examples. First is the “Green Project” of the Philippine Retailers Association (PRA) that advocates for energy efficiency and sustainable packaging within its membership, understandably because its members consist of large malls as well as small and medium retail stores. The second is the initiatives of the Philippine Franchise Association (PFA) that promote food waste reduction and training programs related to the SDGs with emphasis on women and youth demographics.

2. Use the SDGs as a framework. While starting small and focusing on areas where they have the experience and influence, both PRA and PFA use the 17 SDGs as a framework and select from them where they can have more impact. For in-

stance, both cover Goal 13 (climate action), as mentioned above, and Goal 17 (partnership for the goals) where the two associations use their broad networks to collaborate with other same-minded organizations in the pursuit of their sustainable objectives.

3. Don’t reinvent the wheel. It also helps that associations adopt sustainability initiatives that have already worked and have a proven track record. Creating awareness, conducting briefings and capacitybuilding programs, peer-to-peer best practice and solution sharing, as well as communicating via simple messaging and multi-channel application, are some approaches that have been effective. Availing of collaboration and complementation of competence opportunities can also make a difference.

4. Involve the youth and use their energy. One dividend that the current world demographics can harness, in this case for advancing sustainability, is involving the youth in sustainability actions. From the experience of associations worldwide,

physical and digital channels—to provide banking clients with wider variety of services and experiences. With advanced digital capabilities in place, the bank enables clients to consciously support sustainability through paperless banking, thereby reducing their carbon footprint.

In view of its cutting-edge sustainability innovations, BPI has reaped eight (8) sustainability-related awards as of October 2022, the most in a year among Philippine banks.

resumed their regular monthly pensions after December 31, 2021 (following the 5-year period). Also qualified are members who separated from the service from 2006 to 2022 before reaching the age of 60 who started receiving their regular monthly pension from 2018 onward and who have been regular pensioners for at least five years, the GSIS said.

Old-age and disability pensioners who are on suspended status as of December 31, 2022 due to non-compliance with the Annual Pensioners Information Revalidation (APIR) will also receive their cash gift after they have reactivated their status.

Meanwhile, the following are ineligible to receive the cash gift: pensioners who availed of the 5-year lump sum but will receive their regular monthly pension after December 31, 2022; survivorship and dependent pensioners; pensioners who retired under RA 7699 (Portability Law); and, those receiving pro-rata pension.

New retirees from 2018 to 2022 who availed of the 18-month cash payment of their basic monthly pension and immediate pension under RA 8291 will only receive their cash gift five years after their retirement.

➜ IDC fetes Maya Bank Maya Bank Inc. was recently recognized as a

at the “Future Enterprise awards 2022” by International Data Corp. (IDC) for “leveraging its deep customer data and artificial intelligence to bring banking, payments and more in just one money platform —the first-of-its-kind innovation in the Philippines.” Maya President Shailesh Baidwan was quoted in a statement as expressing gratitude to IDC “for recognizing our gamechanging innovations powered by data and aI This is a testament to how data—when used wisely and fairly—could unlock the power of all-in-one digital banking in accelerating digital adoption and widening financial inclusion.” The IDC cited Maya as the “Best in Future of Intelligence” for its “data-driven everything” program, a key driver in transforming PayMaya into Maya. Baidwan said Maya recorded over one million new bank customers and more than P10 billion in deposit balance just five months after its launch in april 2022. Rizal Raoul Reyes

➜ BTr honors Security Bank

the millennials have been “association joiners” contrary to anecdotal data. They aspire to contribute to the cause of the association and, at the same time, expect being on the table and be recognized for their efforts.

5. Be agile, adapt, and make changes going forward. One of the lessons learned during the pandemic is being able to be flexible and to institute changes as the need arises. In terms of sustainability actions, associations need to listen to their members and undertake programs which their members are keen and able to contribute. In the case of GCNP, its “Private Sector Champions” initiative has 10 focus areas to be scaled up in ten years to help micro, small and medium enterprises recover from the pandemic and be more resilient in their business sustainability practices.

Octavio Peralta is currently the executive director of the UN Global Compact Network Philippines and founder and volunteer CEO of the Philippine Council of Associations and Association Executives, the “association of associations.” E-mail: bobby@ pcaae.org.

THE Bureau of Treasury (BTr) has once again recognized Security Bank Corp. as a “Market Maker for 2023” under the enhanced Government Securities Eligible Dealers program, the lender said. The recognition is given in line with the Bank’s continued efforts to support the national government in promoting the development of domestic capital markets. The GSED program was launched in 2017 to promote the depth and liquidity of the Government Securities (GS) markets, specifically by enhancing the performance of the GS Primary Market and increasing the liquidity of the GS Secondary Market. The program also aims to assist the BTr in its initiatives to develop Philippine capital markets. “We’re pleased to retain our Market Maker status for 2023 as it allows us to play a major role in BTr’s fund-raising efforts. Security Bank will continue developing the GS Primary and Secondary Markets together with other Market Makers,” Senior Vice President andre P. Ibarra was quoted in the statement as saying. annually, the BTr determines who will be Market Makers under the GSED program. Those who are named as “Market Makers” are considered by the BTr as having sufficient capacity and commitment to develop the GS primary and secondary markets.

Octavio Peralta

Association World

This November 11, 2022, photo courtesy of the Bank of the Philippine islands show (from left) international Finance Corp. senior Country Officer for the Philippines Thuy Thu Bui; iFC senior investment Officer Aileen Ruiz-Zarate; iFC Country Manager for the Philippines Jean-Marc Arbogast, Philippine Green Building initiative EDGE Program Director Ramon D. Aguilos; BPi President and CEO Jose Teodoro K. Limcaoco; BPi Chief Finance Officer and Chief sustainability Officer Eric Roberto M. Luchangco; and, BPi Executive Vice President and head of Consumer Banking Maria Cristina L. Go.

briefscountry winner

Relationships

Anxious...but waiting for Christmas

MY Christmas lights and small parols are finally up, as I courageously welcome the holiday season like the rest of our anxious kababayans. I admit I had to do the Yuletide decorating gradually, as brainfogged me couldn’t initially remember where I had stashed all the holiday accessories and trimmings, and because I didn’t want to shell-shock the power bill just yet.

I started decorating last month by bringing out the Christmas mugs for my coffee and tea, and the holiday-themed placemats. Then came out the red and green hand towels for the kitchen, tightly packed with the other holiday decor and accessories in a special storage box.

The Christmas-themed throw pillow cases came out next, along with the fabric shower curtain for the bathroom. I don’t have enough holiday paper napkins though, so I will sparingly use them only during the two-week Christmas-New Year period. (I buy most of these Christmas paper napkins from The Landmark, but failed to find any this year except for the cocktail type. Perhaps there is still a global supply issue? I noticed that in some foreign franchised clothing stores, their new summer outfits have only just arrived and are on display alongside with their sparkly holiday line and Yuletide merch and accessories. Bizarre.)

Shopping for Yuletide presents for friends and family has admittedly been a little painful with prices of consumer goods having risen dramatically in a span of just six months. There were a few times these past few weeks that I’ve been to the mall when I thought to myself that I should’ve bought the items I wanted to gift some people, maybe way back in the February.

And while it’s true the online sales (10.10, 11.11, and eventually 12.12) are being held in rapid succession, this usually means the sizes you need for certain garments or shoes, for instance, may no longer be available, as merchants try to get rid of their remaining inventory.

Even food items like cookies, cakes, ensaymadas,

chicken relleno and the like—usually fail-safe Christmas presents suited for most giftees—are more expensive not just because of the time of the year when demand is high, but because the Philippine peso is weak, and most food ingredients are imported, like flour, sugar and most seasonings.

But Filipinos being who we are, we will still spend a lot this holiday season, never mind if we blow the 13th month pay or Christmas bonus (if you are entitled to any), or max out our credit cards. It’s just a season we enjoy to the hilt, when we gather with families and friends to eat, drink and make merry. (Or sow mayhem, like the infamous Poblacion Girl, who apparently paid a fine of only P20,000 despite having endangered her companions’ health, as she broke quarantine protocols in December last year.)

According to the WorldRemit 2022 Cost of Christmas Study, many families around the world are projected to spend “up to 156 percent of their monthly income” on Christmas this year because of quickening inflation.

“Of the 23 countries surveyed in 2022, developing economies like the Philippines, Uganda, and Nigeria are likely to spend more than 100 percent of their total monthly income on Christmas, while in the United Kingdom, Christmas will cost 65 percent more than it did in 2021.” Other countries in the survey include the United States, Germany, Australia, Mexico, South

Africa, etc.

The survey also showed that Filipinos will spend an average of about $569 per household for Christmas, of which 51 percent will go to Christmas food, 8 percent to Christmas decorations, and 40 percent to Christmas gifts.

Uganda has the lowest cost per household spend for Christmas at $60, while the highest is Canada at $2,100. Despite being the highest Christmas spenders, Canadians curiously will only spend 19 percent on holiday food, 26 percent on decorations, but splurge on Christmas presents at 55 percent of the total, according to the survey.

Christmas is that time of the year when we try to put our best foot forward, especially when hosting family reunions and parties with friends and other loved ones. And I know a few people who host such get-togethers annually—even when they usually bitch and groan due to the stress in organizing these events, and the sums that will be spent on food and drink, they still keep hosting. They enjoy the fun camaraderie; there is often singing and some dancing, as well as the playful sparring among guests. Also, these hosts are keen to serve the latest in-cuisine and trendy beverages, while still keeping some traditional holiday food on the table, as well. Continued on B5

Gift books for the holidays

DURING these pandemic times, perhaps the best way to enjoy and savor the meaning and joy of the Christmas season is to curl up with a book or two on the Philippines’s cultural history and national heritage.

Visitacion “Chit” R. dela Torre, one of the country’s seasoned writers and book authors who has come up with 30-plus titles, offers her more recent coffee table books. These include a new title, Rising with the Filipino, along with Filipino Cultural Symbols, Expressions and Brands;

Cultural Icons of the Philippines; Lipa: A Jewel of a City; The Ilocos Heritage; The Barong Tagalog: The Millennium Edition; Pagdarasal: The Filipino Child’s Prayer Book; The Filipino Child, More Grace and Magic, etc. Rising with the Filipino is a collection of essays on Philippine history, culture, the arts, and lifestyle.

Written in a lighthearted, engaging narrative style and complemented by relevant, arresting photographs, full color, the book celebrates the Filipino as he/she navigates the Philippines,

a country, an archipelago, a democracy.

Dela Torre, along with other cultural advocates, founded a nonstock, non-profit organization of professional volunteers, called Brown Movement for Cultural Advancement Inc., which aims to preserve, promote and enhance the Filipino cultural genius.

For inquiries, contact Brown Movement for Cultural Advancement Inc. at 8815-4938, 8815-6925, or chitdelatorre19@gmail.com.

‘uppercut’

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Today’s Horoscope

By Eugenia Last

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Shani Davis, 39; Debi Mazar, 57; John Slattery, 59; Dawnn Lewis, 60.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Pay attention, and you’ll be able to take advantage of unique opportunities. Be open with friends, relatives or your lover, and make plans that will help you create a mutually beneficial connection that is geared toward a healthier future. Refuse to let outsiders interfere with your plans or meaningful relationships. Stick to what’s tried and true. Your numbers are 5, 17, 22, 24, 33, 36, 43.

aARIES (March 21-April 19): Distance yourself from anyone who stifles you. Focus on what’s important to you and the changes you can make if you put more effort into your plans. Have confidence in who you are and what you have to offer. HHH

bTAURUS (April 20-May 20): Uncertainty will lead to inconsistency. Evaluate the past and present, and rely on your experience to help you put your energy where it will bring the highest return. Discuss your options with someone near and dear to you. HHH

cGEMINI (May 21-June 20): A change in how or where you work will be met with pros and cons. Consider your options, and decide to do what makes you feel happy and healthy. Choose to follow the path that honors your integrity and encourages growth. HHHHH

dCANCER (June 21-July 22): Step back if someone pressures you to invest in something unfamiliar or risky. Ask trusted allies, relatives or an expert before you jump into something that can eat your savings or lead you down the wrong path. When in doubt, say no. HH

eLEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Work in conjunction with people who share your objective and concerns. You’ll accomplish more if you are open to suggestions and sharing the work and the benefits that unfold. HHHH

fVIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Take an energetic approach to life. Participate in challenges that require physical and mental agility, and play to win. Pay attention to detail, and you’ll find an obscure way to be competitive and aweinspiring to an onlooker. HHH

gLIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Make plans to socialize with people who spark your imagination and, open your mind to new and exciting options. Look at change as growth, and you’ll learn something that will help you adjust to the modifications going on around you. Embrace life. HHH

hSCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Think before you act. If you set unrealistic expectations, disappointment will follow. Ask for help if you need it, and you’ll be surprised by a response you receive from someone you least expect. HHH

iSAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Ask questions, and verify the information you receive. Look for opportunities that will help you save money. Keep your wits about you if someone suggests something unrealistic. HHHH

jCAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Control your emotions when dealing with money, health or contractual matters. If you overreact or take on too much, it will be difficult to reverse the consequences. Avoid joint ventures to ensure you maintain control. Physical improvements will pay off. HH

kAQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): You’ll have a healthy attitude and an open mind. What you discover will help you handle your finances better and improve a meaningful relationship. Take a unique approach when it comes to pleasing someone you love. A surprise will be rewarding. HHHHH

lPISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Dig in and get things done. What you achieve will leave a lasting impression on someone you deem special. Let your intentions be known, and you’ll be able to make plans that will result in a positive lifestyle change. HHHHH

BIRTHDAY BABY: You are friendly, enthusiastic and generous. You are spontaneous and impressive.

H: Avoid conflicts; work behind the scenes. HH: You can accomplish, but don’t rely on others. HHH: Focus and you’ll reach your goals. HHHH: Aim high; start new projects. HHHHH: Nothing can stop you; go for gold.

BY LINDSEY HOBBS

The Universal Crossword/Edited by David Steinberg

PHOTO

Promoting self-love in new GMA lifestyle digital channel

AS the YOLO (You Only Live Once) mindset becomes more widespread, GMA Network introduces a lifestyle channel on YouTube, called ATM (or “Adventure. Taste. Moments.”). It will have a launch livestream on December 4, and the public can join the livestream to party and chat with the network’s stars right after All-Out Sundays

Since the pandemic, people have been focusing more on their health while trying to live their best life. Through ATM, the audience will discover everything under the sun—from nutritious recipes and styling tips, to travel ideas and exciting events.

Viewers who are on the move to search for places and culture might envision their next dream destination on ATM. Watch as the Sparkle sweethearts Miguel Tanfelix and Ysabel Ortega— YsaGuel to fans—share stories about their muchanticipated live-action remake Voltes V: Legacy ATM is also perfect for entertainment seekers who want to know the latest news about celebrities. Tune in as Gabbi Garcia talks about her five big roles in GMA.

Watch out for GMA personalities who will face fun challenges in the channel, such as the ATM Surprise Box. Sparkle loveteam Mavy Legaspi and Kyline Alcantara explore what’s inside the mystery box.

Moreover, ATM will treat viewers with a sneak peek behind the scenes of GMA programs and events, such as TiktoClock, All-Out Sundays, Sarap, ‘Di Ba?, Farm to Table, The Clash, and the JulieVerse concert.

Those music enthusiasts must also stay tuned as Bey Pascua covers the live concert scene and interviews some of the most exciting foreign artists who are performing in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, foodies will learn food hacks from Chef JR Royol and Chef Jose Sarasola. They can even rewatch the mouth-watering episodes of Taste Buddies and Taste on ATM. Devoted followers of fashion can look forward to the newest lifestyle channel as it brings to light the fashion and makeup trends suited for everyone’s taste.

The launch party livestream will be December 4, 2 pm, after All-Out Sundays on the ATM YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/@adventuretastemoments).

‘Sa Paglupad ka Banog’: Winning myth

How many more times shall the village chanter sing about this story of love?

All this and more are addressed by this short film—all of nine minutes that seem to feel like a lifetime. This makes mythical time gripping.

Our hero falls ill. Nothing can cure him, except the water from a river guarded over by a huge crocodile. Only the Hawk (Banog) has the task (and responsibility) to draw the potent water from that source, battling it out for love and supremacy with Pabayhu, the crocodile.

in their dress, the fusion of haute folk and the indigenous.

A tremendous visual feast, Sa Paglupad ka Banog (The Flight of a Hawk), pays tribute to myths as the site of our own gilded histories.

THERE is a film that is gaining not only awards but admiration from all over the world (it has participated and won accolades in film festivals in Portugal, Los Angeles, New Zealand, Hanoi, Vietnam, Colombia... the list goes on). It is a short film of a myth coming from the Panay-Bukidnon, a geographical area that is demarcated by the mountains of the Capiz-Lambunao as well as those located around Antique and Iloilo. Their isolation has brought about for these indigenous communities also a kind of proto-enclosure, which to folklorists and cultural workers best explains why they have been able to “preserve” their rituals and literatures against the modernizing elements around them.

The film is about a hero with a golden body but the title points to the Banog, the Hawk, a bird/being that plays an imminent role to the immortality of the hero, Humadapnon. Poetry is the primum movens of this tale: the sadness of the little boy pushing the father to tell him the adventures of an epic hero.

It is from the orality of tradition where everything begins, including hope.

From the moment Humadapnon is presented onscreen, we know we are in for a magical ride. In a pose that appears to come from anime, Hellenistic traditions of statuary, and Vedic imaginary, this Humadapnon is a handsome warrior, human in form but one that transcends valleys and dales and deaths. In quick succession, all the other characters are paraded before us. Brisk movements run a contrapuntal rhythm to the Panay-anon chant, the latter with the languor indicative of ceremonials.

How many times have the people heard the tale?

The Hawk wins and brings the water to the dead body of Humadapnon and pours it all over him. The other ally of our hero comes to help revive him. He is Sunmasakay, who is described as “a well-built warrior with lustrous skin.” He exudes the scent of a woman, which can be explained by the fact that Sunmasakay and Mali, Humadapnon’s beloved, are one and the same.

In one of the scenes where the hero is about to be revived, Sunmasakay is shown caressing the face of Humadapnon, an act of gender trespass unless we rethink that space and put Mali there. But why are we overthinking this sensual transgression?

Humadapnon is alive! Again. Immortal now. Onscreen, the Binukot, the Kept Maiden, appears in the person of Mali.

The story is over? No. The old man gently gets the hands of Rohan and raises it to teach the boy the movement of the myth, the dance that imitates the actions of the hawk during those heroic moments.

From the fires in front of father and son, we fly across the greenest of meadows and look down (Hawk’s view) at the Panay-anon dancing the dance of the Hawk. The gestures are simple but not simplistic, pared down to the minimum where language survives by being lucid. As the dance is performed, the camera moves up to a hill where a mise-en-scene of all the characters are with the narrator/chanter in the middle. Ingenious, this tableau is a most original commentary of how and who we are when we dance the myth, the unbroken line of succession. We are the boy whose sadness one night urges the chanter to tell once more the old stories.

While these many events are transpiring, our mind is filled with the memories of these characters

UK ROYALS TRAVELING TO BOSTON WITH EYE ON ENVIRONMENT PRIZE

LONDON— The first overseas trip by the Prince and Princess of Wales since the death of Queen Elizabeth II begins Wednesday, an occasion to show the world as much about who they are not as who they are.

Continued from B4

With this Christmas being just our second since Covid-19 shut the world down, more face-to-face parties and reunions are expected. Personally, I’ve avoided the Christmas tree lighting ceremonies this year, which would have meant gathering with people I don’t know and whose Covid-related medical histories I am not familiar with, but have accepted select meal invites with VIPs and colleagues, as well as a few friends.

So, even as our anxiety remains over the higher Yuletide spending, or from continuing Covidcautiousness, let’s look forward to reuniting with those who are still among us, and give thanks to the blessings we still receive to make Christmas with our loved ones possible. n

With their three-day visit to Boston, focused on Prince William’s initiative to find the environmental entrepreneurs of a new generation, supplemented with trips to an anti-poverty program, child development researchers and local flood defenses, the couple hope to demonstrate that they aren’t the last remnants of a dying institution. Instead, Americans will see the younger face of a monarchy that is tackling important issues as it seeks to remain relevant in modern, multicultural Britain.

The visit comes less than three months after the death of Elizabeth, whose personal popularity dampened criticism of the crown during her 70-year reign. King Charles III, William’s father, has made clear that his will be a slimmed-down monarchy, with less pomp and ceremony than its predecessors.

“I think this is less about saving the Earth and more about saving the royal family,’’ Boston University professor Arianne Chernock, an expert in

modern British history, said. “To be honest, we’ve seen Charles as king and his first months in that position trying to feel his way, find his way towards being a more relevant, more modern monarch. And I think we see something similar happening with William and Kate.’’

Part of that reset involves reclaiming the hearts and minds of people in America, where William’s younger brother, Prince Harry, and sister-in-law, Meghan, have dominated the media since moving to California in 2020.

Harry and Meghan have criticized the royal family for alleged racism and insensitive treatment and built their own media profile by making films and podcasts for Netflix and Spotify.

The Netflix series The Crown has also resurrected some of the more troubled times of the House of Windsor, including the collapse of Charles’s marriage to the late Princess Diana, William’s mother, amid mutual allegations of infidelity.

But William and Kate are keen to tell a different story, about their work on environmental issues, mental health and early childhood education. AP

Behind this short masterpiece is Elvert Bañares, a filmmaker noted for edgy and experimental works who in The Flight...experiments with the most material of filmic elements—design, colors, costumes—and comes out of it with such compelling majesty. Bañares is the cinematographer, soaring over a sweep of landscape in verdant hues, the copper earth mystical lines as seen from above, and the gurgling river the trope for the passing of time. Screenplay is by Dr. Jesus Insilada, an accomplished academic and himself a member of the Panay Bukidnon community. Central to this film is the chanter of the Sugidanon, Romulo C. Caballero, a Cultural Master. At the beginning of his chant, a subtitle states, “And so we start where we last ended.” This is the nature of myth, its cyclical persistence. The film credits those who have done pioneering studies of the Panay Bukidnon: F. Landa Jocano, the pre-eminent anthropologist who wrote about the Hinilawod, and Dr. Alice Magos, whose intensive fieldwork has produced books about the Sugidanon, among many others.

Sa Paglupad Ka Banog is produced by E Unlimited, the Iloilo Festival Foundation, the City of Iloilo, Negros Cultural Foundation, and the Department of Tourism, Region 6, in cooperation with the municipalities of Calinog and Lambunao in Iloilo. n

LAST OF US’ DEBUTS JANUARY 16

THE nine-episode first season of the HBO Original drama series The Last of Us debuts January 16 on HBO GO.

The Last of Us takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal and heart-breaking journey as they both must traverse the US and depend on each other for survival.

The cast includes Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, Gabriel Luna as Tommy, Anna Torv as Tess, Nico Parker as Sarah, Murray Bartlett as Frank, Nick Offerman as Bill, Melanie Lynskey as Kathleen, Storm Reid as Riley, Merle Dandridge as Marlene, Jeffrey Pierce as Perry, Lamar Johnson as Henry, Keivonn Woodard as Sam, Graham Greene as Marlon, and Elaine Miles as Florence. Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker also star.

The Last of Us, based on the critically acclaimed video game of the same name developed by Naughty Dog exclusively for the PlayStation platforms, is written and executive produced by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann.

Stream or download The Last of Us on HBO GO. Subscribe to HBO GO online at www.hbogoasia.ph or the mobile app via the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. HBO GO is also available on Android TV, Apple TV, LG TV and Samsung Smart TV, and comes with AirPlay and Google Cast functionality.

Mutli-sectoral group calls for safer bike lane networks, friendly policies for bikers

OPM rock icons to take center stage at three-day Music Festival at Enchanted Kingdom in Laguna this weekend

FROM the creators of Wanderland Music & Arts Festival and concert series

Karpos Live, Karpos Multimedia brings you a new Christmas tradition to make your holidays more special!

Experience live music, thrilling rides, magical activities, and a jolly celebration for the whole family all wrapped together at the biggest and first theme park music festival in the Philippines—Salo-Salo Fest. Don’t miss this three-day celebration on December 2, 3, and 4 at Enchanted Kingdom featuring a lineup of more than 40 artists!

Joining the celebration are classic OPM rock icons Parokya ni Edgar, Ely Buendia, Rico Blanco, Ebe Dancel, Mayonnaise, Urbandub and Orange and Lemons. Taking us to cloud nine are the soulful voices of Barbie Almalbis, Moonstar88 and Clara Benin. Making noise for today’s hottest acts, Unique Salonga, Arthur Nery, Paolo Sandejas and Zild & Kiyo. The more the merrier as these international artists are all set to join the celebration–returning to the Philippines is indie-pop duo, Joan, and making his Manila debut is singer-

songwriter Johnny Stimson.

Last but definitely not the least, put on your dancing shoes and let the music guide you at our dance tent, Goody Dance Shoes! Dance all night long with disco, poolside lounge, and leisure pop sets curated by Groove Disco, Pool Records and Leisure.

Tickets available at www.tickelo.com/ salosalofest2022. Follow Salo-Salo Fest’s socials (@salosalofest) to get the latest updates.

ON National Bicycle Day last November 27, 2022, a multisectoral call for safer bike lanes and stronger regulations to protect bikers was made at this year’s National Bike Lane Awards hosted by the Ayala Foundation, Makati Business Club, and the Interagency Technical Working Group for Active Transportation (IATWG-AT).

“It is critical for all sectors to inspire others to emulate alternative modes of transport,” said Department of Transportation Secretary Jaime Bautista. “When people decide not to cycle, it’s often an indicator of lack of safety, not lack of need or want. We know many Filipinos need and want to cycle,” said Move As One Convenor Robert Siy, Jr. Makati Business Club Trustee and President of Philippine Seven Corporation Jose Victor Paterno urged the government to prioritize a connected bike lane network and regulation codifying right of way for

cyclists. “Other bike-friendly services will naturally follow when a critical mass of bikers is served through better bike lanes, and you can count on the private sector to help out,” Paterno added.

Swedish Ambassador to the Philippines Annika Thunborg and Dutch Deputy Ambassador to the Philippines Robert van der Hum supported the call to promote the safety of cyclists.

Iloilo City bagged the Gold Award, with Quezon City and Mandaue City earning the Silver and Bronze Awards respectively at this year’s National Bike Lane Awards for their best practices and efforts to establish bike lanes. Pasig City won an Exemplary Award for Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation, while Alaminos City won an Exemplary Award for the planning of their bicycle network. Baguio City and Taguig City were recognized as finalists.

The National Bike Lane Awards

was launched in 2021 by the IATWGAT – comprising the Department of Transportation, the Department of Interior and Local Government, the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Department of Health, and the National Economic and Development Authority – to promote and develop active mobility across the country.

This year’s winners received bike donations for their employees from the Wheels For Work Project, a joint initiative between the Ayala Foundation and Makati Business Club to provide bikes as a sustainable means of transportation to help mobilize Filipino workers nationwide.

The event was made possible with the support of 7-Eleven, AC Infra, CocaCola, CycleHouse, Entrego, GIZ, Grab, McDonald’s Philippines, MDC Equipment Solutions, Megawide Foundation, Monark, SM Cares, and White & Case.

Leading man Joshua Garcia celebrates Christmas Magic as the new face of e-wallet app GCash for the holidays

THERE are still several days until Christmas, yet the season is already very much alive everywhere in the country. While the last few years may have been a little less jolly, GCash, the country’s leading e-wallet app, is bringing back the magic to the holidays with a little help from Philippine entertainment’s new leading man.

Joshua Garcia has been heating up televisions across the country with his starring role as Brian Robles in “Mars Ravelo’s Darna” and an upcoming landmark deal for Dreamscape production’s “Unbreak My Heart”. Adding to his already impressive list of milestones is his new role as the face of GCash to celebrate a Merry G Christmas and uphold what truly warms his heart – traditions with his family and friends.

“The family tradition I look forward to every Christmas is our family reunion where my family spends Christmas together,” he said. “We take advantage of the time we can to have our bonding during this season when we are not too busy with work with some games and a simple feast for the whole family.”

Just like many Filipinos, Christmas for Joshua becomes truly magical when spent with the right people.

“My most magical Christmas experience was when I was living in the province and I went caroling in our neighborhood with my friends. Afterwards, we attended the Simbang Gabi with our family. I’m really glad that I got to experience Christmas that way,” he said.

Of course, part of any Christmas celebration is hunting for the perfect gifts for your loved ones. But despite his highprofile stature, Joshua stays humble and opts for meaningful gifts and thoughtful spending.

“To find the most meaningful Christmas gifts for my loved ones, I always think about what they really need at that time so the gifts are useful

and that, through those gifts, they will also remember me somehow,” Joshua said. “I don’t really give very expensive gifts. As long as they make them happy, then I am, too.”

With the long list of celebrations lined up for Joshua this Christmas, looking for these useful items will be a big task. His secret? He does his shopping with GCash.

According to the actor: “One of my favorite GCash services is GLife because there are lots of merchants to choose from. It is a one-stop shop for a quick purchase of my favorite products and services. It is very timely since Christmas season is almost here, I can definitely use it for my Christmas shopping to buy gifts for my loved ones.”

Thanks to GCash, Christmas shopping can be a magical experience in itself, especially when you get cashbacks and discounts from the GCash Online Bazaar from Nov. 28 to January 5, 2023. You can conveniently pay through your GCash wallet, pay later through GCredit, or pay in installment with GGives.

Though many Filipinos will celebrate with their families this year, there are still some who wouldn’t be able to enjoy family reunions like Joshua and might spend time apart during the

holidays. Despite the distance, GCash makes sure that everyone can send Christmas cheer wherever your loved ones may be.

You can send pamasko to anyone anywhere through Send Money for other GCash users, Bank Transfer or GCash Padala for non-GCash users, or Send with a Clip to attach a special message to your Aguinaldo. If actual presents are your thing, you can also shop online with GLife and pay for your gifts on GCash.

And because GCash wants everyone’s Christmas to be truly magical, every gift given through GCash becomes a gift for yourself, too.

For every PHP 100 spent using GCash services or when using GLoan, GGives, and GCredit, users can earn parols and enter the Merry GCash raffle. Raffle draws will be done on December 5 and December 19 where GCash will be giving away five iPhone 14 phones, five Macbook Air M1 laptops and five Sony PS5 Playstations. Sixty-five lucky winners will also take home P10,000 worth of e-fuel cards from Petron, P10,000 worth of Mercury Drugstore gift certificates, P20,000 worth of IKEA gift cards and P30,000 worth of SM Appliances gift cards.

With so many ways to hunt and shop for gifts, Joshua leaves his fans with just one piece of advice: “To be honest, I think for me what’s more important is that every time I give my loved ones gifts, they are pleased with what they received, whether they may be simple or otherwise.”

Whether you opt for grand gifts or small tokens, make every spend count when you use your GCash for every transaction. No GCash yet? Download the GCash App on the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, or Huawei App Gallery! Register and get verified today, and discover how you can have a Merry GCash celebration!

SHARE the joy of celebrating with your family this holiday season as Subway® prepares a new flavor with Pork Patty BBQ Sub, the holiday treat that will satisfy your craving!

The new Subway® Pork Patty BBQ Sub features a soft and tender pork patty, paired with Subway®’s original spicy and smoky BBQ sauce made with the right balance of spices to give you the mouthwatering taste.

To complement your meal, add in your favorite Mint Choco Chip Cookie, to satisfy your sweet tooth and enjoy a delightful feast

with the people who are worth the happiness that every bite can give.

From P185 for the six-inch sub, P360 for the footlong sub, P195 for the wrap, and P265 for the salad, or make it a meal with a 22-oz drink and 2 pieces of cookies for an add-on price of P120, valid for dine-in transactions only. Delivery price varies accordingly.

Grab these meals from December 7, 2022 until January 31, 2023!

For more information on the latest Subway® #EatFresh and #BetterChoice promos, visit www.fb.com/SubwayPhilippines.

Japanese sushi chain Genki Sushi marks 7th year in PHL with opening of 10th store in Caloocan

MARKING its 7th year in the country, Genki Sushi Philippines has opened its 10th store in Caloocan City. To celebrate, their Japanese chefs created a sushi cake with salmon temari in the shape of a “10.”

They also launched their Soft-Shell Crab series which include Soft Shell Crab Temaki, Soft Shell Crab Makimono, and more new dishes that will leave any kid at heart craving for more.

Genki Sushi is an international sushi chain from Japan that started in 1968 and currently has multiple locations worldwide including in the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong, USA, Indonesia, and more. Genki Sushi first opened its doors in the Philippines in 2015 and now has 10 stores nationwide.

Genki Sushi integrates an automated ordering system that brings the food directly to the customer through a Kosouku or Shinkansen Train system instead of a typical conveyer belt. Genki Sushi prides itself on

offering quality and contemporary Japanese cuisine at an excellent value—bringing the most authentic and professional sushi dining experience without compromising on quality.

Genki Sushi is open for dining daily in all locations:

■ 2/F Bonifacio Stopover

■ Phase 2, Level 1, U.P. Town Center

■ Level 2, Corte, Ayala The 30th

■ Lower Ground Level, SM Aura Premier

■ Main Mall, Upper Ground Level, SM North EDSA

■ Level 2, The Mega Atrium, SM Megamall

■ Level 2, Ayala Malls Manila Bay

■ Upper Ground, Sunset Terraces, SM City Baguio

■ Ground Floor, South Parking Building, SM Mall of Asia

■ Upper Ground Level, SM City Grand Central Follow Genki Sushi’s socials for updates! Facebook/ Instagram: @GenkiSushiPH

Feel the warmth this holiday season by savoring the taste of Subway‘s latest offering—Pork Patty BBQ Sub

Nueva Ecija, Zamboanga start national finals series

Vanguards will have built-in advantages over

Brand Sardines when the National Finals of the OKBetMaharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) 4th Season Presented by Xtreme begin on Friday in Palayan City.

Nueva Ecija boasts a deeper roster, a better overall record and will be playing in front of the hometown crowd at the Nueva Ecija Coliseum.

The Rice Vanguards have tasted defeat but once in 27 games en route to the South division crown, while Zamboanga needed to rally from 19-points down in the third quarter to snatch the North division title from Batangas City.

A ccording to Coach Jerson Cabiltes, Nueva Ecija’s lone loss to San Juan in the opener of their North title series was a “blessing in disguise” as it took off the pressure for them to sweep the tournament.

C abiltes said he would rather suffer that loss than fail to capture the national title for team owner Bong Cuevas, team manager Ivan Cuevas and Palayan City Mayor Rianne Cuevas.

O pposing Coach Vic Ycasiano doesn’t mind the underdog tag and is focused on the task entrusted to him by Zamboanga Family’s Brand Sardines team owner Anita Kaw.

Our goal is to win one on the road,” said Ycasiano, also referring to Game 2 which will again be held in Palayan City on December 5. “We’re going to play with our hearts and our balls.”

MESSI: NOW ANOTHER WORLD CUP BEGINS!

DOHA, Qatar—Rest easy, soccer fans. Lionel Messi will grace the World Cup stage at least one more time.

The Argentina great had a penalty saved but his team still beat Poland 2-0 Wednesday after second-half goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Julian Alvarez and advanced to the last 16.

A fter opening the World Cup with a shocking 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia in one of biggest upsets in the tournament’s history, Argentina wound up finishing in first place in Group C and will next play Australia—a surprise qualifier for the knockout stage.

Messi rolls into Saturday’s game suddenly in a strong position in likely his final World Cup.

Now another World Cup begins.” Messi said, “and hopefully we can continue to do what we did today.”

A s for Poland, it was ultimately a happy night, too, because the team went through as the group’s secondplace team—on goal difference ahead of Mexico—and will next play defending champion France.

Messi ended up relieved after failing to score a penalty for the second straight World Cup. It was awarded after he was hit in the face by the flailing hand of Poland goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, who made amends by diving to his left to block Messi’s kick in the 39th minute.

“ I’m upset that I missed the penalty, but the team came back stronger after my error,” he said.

A l argely pro-Argentina crowd, waving flags and scarfs and beating

drums behind both goals, had been sweeping Messi and his team along at the 44,000-seat Stadium 974 and they didn’t stop after the penalty.

Within seconds, a chant of “MESSI!

MESSI!” immediately reverberated around the venue in a bid to keep their idol’s head high.

A nd the roars were even louder at the start of the second half, first after Mac Allister’s goal—a scruffy finish from Nahuel Molina’s cut-back from the right—in the first minute and soon after as news filtered through that Mexico had taken the lead against Saudi Arabia, which started the day in third place.

Playing an Argentine-record 22nd World Cup game, Messi never stopped surging forward and he was a menace all game to Poland with his dribbling ability and vision. One 40-meter solo run saw him weave past three opponents, drift past another only to miskick as he took aim.

The match was billed as a headto-head between Messi and Poland striker Robert Lewandowski, perhaps the best center forward in the world, but it proved to be a mismatch.

“ If Messi played with us and Robert played for Argentina, Robert would have scored five goals,” Poland Coach Czeslaw Michniewicz said. “Robert needs to be helped and the match was only played in our half.”

M essi wasn’t involved in either goal, though. For the second, Enzo Fernandez scooped a pass to Alvarez—starting ahead of regular striker Lautaro Martinez—and he took one touch before curling his shot into the top corner in the 67th minute.

Th ings couldn’t have gone better for Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni, who made more bold changes in bringing in Alvarez, Fernandez and Molina and seeing them play a part in the goals. Mac Allister, meanwhile, didn’t start against Saudi Arabia and has added energy in midfield in the two games since.

Suddenly, Argentina looks more like the team which entered the World Cup on a 36-match unbeaten run and as one of the tournament favorites, a year after winning the Copa America.

We wanted to make amends for that Saudi Arabia game because we knew we could play better,” Mac Allister said. “We’ve managed to find that calm we needed ... we played well collectively and it fills us with confidence.”

T he final whistle blew with Poland players still unsure if they were advancing, given the MexicoSaudi Arabia game was ongoing. At one stage, Poland and Mexico were only separated by the number of yellow cards they had collected in the group stage—Poland had five compared to Mexico’s seven—and Michniewicz was desperately urging his team to not give away fouls in the final minutes.

A stoppage-time goal by the Saudis meant their match finished 2-1 in favor of Mexico, whose goal difference was inferior by one to Poland.

Upon confirmation they had advanced, Poland’s players squirted water from their bottles in the middle of the field and jumped up and down.

Sometimes,” Michniewicz said, “losses can be bittersweet.” AP

San Miguel ends elims campaign against Meralco

By Josef Ramos

SAN

sustain the team’s streak that went on for three games.

A ustria was indisposed since November 19 because of health protocols and still won’t be around for the 3 p.m. game at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.

“ He’s [Gallent] still using my system so that’s fine,” Austria said.

R omeo, according to Austria, is ready for after recovering from back spasm.

M agnolia, meanwhile, shoots for the No. 2 spot in the playoffs for a twice-to-beat advantage when the Hotshots square off with the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters at 6 p.m.

A v ictory by the Hotshots (9-2) would tie them with No. 1 Hong Kong Bay Area Dragon and automatically get the second twice-to-beat incentive.

B ut a loss would shove Magnolia to No. 3 and give Barangay Ginebra San Miguel a free lift to No. 2 in the playoffs.

We

The Beermen—seeded fifth in the quarterfinals with a 6-5 win-loss record—expect to face an ousted Meralco crew that wants to erase the stigma of an 81-92 loss to NLEX in its last game and improve its 4-7 card to close out its campaign.

Creamline storms past

on third place

CREAMLINE relied less on import Yeliz Basa as its allFilipino crew proved enough to blast Chery Tiggo, 25-22, 22-25, 25-5, 25-19, to move a win shy from clinching the bronze medal in the Premier Volleyball League Reinforced Conference at the Smart Araneta Coliseum Thursday.

C oach Sherwin Meneses kept Basa on the bench due to injury and the locals stepped up to anchor the

R ain or Shine (5-6) eyes a win for an automatic No. 8 berth in the quarterfinals. A loss would send the Elasto Painters to a playoff with the Road Warrriors for the last quarterfinals berth.

team’s romp over the very same team that ended their record grand slam bid last Tuesday.

Tots Carlos started in place of their Turkish reinforcement and didn’t disappoint, unleashing an 18-kill game to finish with 19 points while four others churned out double-digit scores for the Cool Smashers, who needed to win in 3 or 4 sets over the Crossovers the last time out but were dragged into a five-set battle that paved the way for

Villamor GC ready for Masters return

TRUE to the country’s premier air base’s catchword “LIPAD PAF,” the Villamor Golf Club (VGC) has soared to greater heights the past 11 months or so with a makeover that turned the quaint military layout not just into a top championship course but also a leading golfing destination.

No less than the country’s top pros have marveled at the transformation of the tight, challenging course into one true test of golf during the recent International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) Villamor Match Play Invitational.

It’s more than ready to stage the (Philippine) Masters again,” said Tony Lascuña, who ruled the men’s side of the first head-to-head clashes on the Philippine Golf (PGT) Tour calendar.

Th rough the initiative of Col. Roelito Nolasco, PAF, GSC (Ret.) who was re-appointed as adviser for administration, under PAF CG (Commanding General) Lt. Gen. Connor Anthony Canlas, the par-72 course and the entire VGC underwent a major facelift to the course and its infrastructure.

“ If ICTSI will include the Philippine Masters in its future calendar of events, VGC will be more than glad to support it,” said Nolasco, hinting at the success of the recent ICTSI Villamor Match Play as prelude to the Masters return on the PGT schedule starting next year.

L ong regarded as one of local golf’s versions of the four Majors, ICTSI and the PGT revived the PH Masters in 2017 after a 17-year wait with Clyde Mondilla claiming the top honors and Jerson Balasabas topping the 2018 edition via playoff over Dutch Guido Van der Valk.

Touring pros hope to see it again on the calendar next year.

To make VGC more challenging and be able to bring out the best and the worst from the weekend hackers, low handicappers and even the pros, Nolasco said they plan to adjust the height of the rough, relocate pin placements and tee markers, maintain the required thickness of the bunkers, and add sand traps, water hazards and trees.

A side from bringing back the Masters to its home, plans are also afoot to make VGC an all-weather layout like most of the country’s premier

courses with an eye on making night golf available in the future.

SOUTHWOODS FIL-AM CHAMP

MANILA

Southwoods closed out with a 106 for a 463-point total to stave off Luisita, which settled for second with 452 points.

“My rookies delivered,” said Southwoods captain Freddie Mendoza,

the Cignal-Petro Gazz title duel.

Top middle Ced Domingo also didn’t suit up for Creamline.

But the rest of the locals still dished out their best in the bronze medal clash with Alyssa Valdez scoring 16 points, Pangs Panaga dominating the middle and finishing with 14 points, spiked by nine blocks, while drawing inspiration from mom’s rare presence at the Big Dome, and Jema Galanza adding 10 markers.

referring to Jun Plana and Manfred Guangko, who played the seniors event for the first time after suiting up for the regular team for years.

Plana, who’s seen action in the FilAm for around 25 years now, was the top gunner for the Cavite-based squad in all four days, closing out with a 29 to emerge as the best scorer in Seniors I. Judd Roy and Raul Muñoza each shot 26 and Gunagko added 25.

Luisita got 29 points from Chino Raymundo, 28 from Rodel Mangulabnan, 26 from Benjie Sumulong and 23 from Dan Cruz.

Marty (Ilagan) got his baptism of fire as a rookie. We gave it our best shot. We will come back stronger next year,” Luisita’s non-playing skipper Jeric Hechanova said.

T he Alpha Phi Omega Golfers (107-379) ruled the AmChampionship over Srixon-IMG (109374) at the Camp John Hay Golf Club.

Dugong Bughaw (101-372), Manila Southwoods-2 (105-354) and Megafiber (94-353) completed the top 5.

LIONEL MESSI rolls into Saturday’s game suddenly in a strong position in likely his final World Cup. AP

championship

PHILIPPINE Air Force Commander G Lt. Gen.

Connor Anthony Canlas (right) with Col. Roelito Nolasco.

MANILA Southwoods’ Raul Miñoza, Jun Plana, Judd Roy, Theody Pascual and Manfred Guangko strike a championship pose.

Southwoods marched to the crown virtually unchallenged by traditional rival Luisita in the final round of the seniors tournament of the 72nd Fil-Am Men’s Invitational Thursday in Baguio City.

Chery Tiggo, zeroes in

THE Nueva Ecija Rice

Zamboanga Family’s

CREAMLINE’S Alyssa Valdez

MIGUEL Beer will see an activated Terrence Romeo from injury bay and assistant coach Jorge Gallent again taking charge when the Beermen battle the Meralco Bolts in a final elimination day duel Friday the result of which would no longer affect the playoffs cast in the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup.

have a momentum that I don’t want to disrupt,” said San Miguel Beer Head Coach Leo Austria, referring to Gallent manning the fort for him so as to possibly

Motoring

BusinessMirror

ShellMaMplaSanoperationS Settorunonrenewableenergy

SHELL Mamplasan mobility site in South Luzon Expressway, Biñan, Laguna, will be powered by renewable energy from Shell Energy Philippines (SEPH). Shell Mamplasan is the second Shell mobility

Del Valle. The executives activated the prop switch to represent Shell Mamplasan’s commitment to run on renewable electricity. The prop switch bearing blue, green, and purple colors represented Water and Air, Nature and Land, and Innovation and Technology, respectively.

“The switching to renewable energy at our operations shows our commitment to reducing our own carbon emissions. We continue to work with partners in the decarbonization journey as we transition to a lower carbon economy,” said Quiambao-Osial.

SEPH is a retail electricity supplier under the Shell Group, offering competitive and environment-friendly energy solutions to industrial and commercial customers in the Philippines. It provides a whole range of energy sources, from fully renewable energies to the traditional supply of electricity, to meet the changing requirements of its customers.

In 2020, Shell began transforming its retail fuel stations into one-stop mobility destinations featuring sustainable solutions. These solutions help reduce energy consumption by approximately 30% compared to a traditional site. Last summer, Shell Mamplasan also launched its Shell Recharge charging

points and, along with the site, will be powered through a mix of solar, geothermal, and hydro energies.

According to Shell Philippines, its group of companies in the country has started utilizing renewable energy sources for its offices and mobility/retail fuel stations. Aside from Shell Mamplasan and Shell NLT1, Shell companies headquarters in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, and the Shell Import Facility (SHIFT) in Tabangao, Batangas, are now powered by renewable energy through SEPH. The Shell Import Facility in Tabangao is 100% powered by a combination of solar, geothermal, and hydro energies provided by SEPH. The onsite solar farm covers 5,220 solar panels and seven inverters, generating up to 300 megawatt hours.

entry into the renewable energy local market

ME ANWHILE the Shell-Emerging Power Inc. (EPI) recent venture to produce utility-scaled, grid-connected projects, which will first roll out in Luzon and Visayas, will concentrate on solar PV. The project aims to generate at least One Gigawatt to meet the power consumption of 1.2 million Filipino

homes annually. Explorations in onshore wind and energy storage systems will then follow. At the same time, retail electricity supplier SEPH will be the primary marketer and seller of the electricity generated by this partnership.

“Working with partners and developing new collaborations is key to accelerating the energy transition. This Shell-EPI partnership will leverage Shell’s technical expertise and integrated solutions as a global energy company and EPI’s strong presence in the Philippines,” said Quiambao-Osial. “Together, we can power progress for the Philippines through sustainable energy for industries and homes.”

EPI has grown its investments across various cleaner energy forms, including solar, wind, and geothermal. It entered the year with more bullish prospects as governments worldwide turn to renewable energy in response to global energy challenges.

EPI currently operates a 100-MW solar farm in Mt. Sta. Rita in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Zambales with a 230-kilovolt-transmission line under the subsidiary Jobin SQM, Inc. It also recently secured a second 100-MW

service contract with the DOE for the

Sta.

the development of which is slated to begin this year. Shell’s partnership with EPI is its latest endeavor in contributing to the global effort to be a net-zero emissions company by

No codiNg for Lexus iN metropoLis

HERE is Jade B. Sison again, commandeering my space—gladly.

“There are many benefits when you drive a Lexus hybrid electric vehicle. It helps reduce carbon emissions, is fuel efficient and cheaper to run. And here’s the clincher: It exempts you from number coding in Metro Manila.

“Lexus hybrid electric owners can breathe a sigh of relief because, according to the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the newly passed Republic Act 11697 or the Electric Vehicle Industry Development Act (EVIDA) law, all electrified vehicles (EVs), battery electric vehicles (fully electric), hybrid vehicles, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will not be apprehended during number coding days.

“Lexus continues to be driven in offering its customers with hybrid electric vehicles that provide comfort, practicality, and sustainability which, because of the new law,

you can now use daily.

“These features, drawn from a vibrant Japanese heritage, are proudly built and engineered by master craftsmen.

“Available in the UX 250h F Sport and UX 200h, these models are very responsive to drive and do not require much plugging in for recharging.

“The hybrid Lexus NX 350h Premier and NX 350h Executive are powered by a powerful engine with a high-output electric motor. They use a control logic exclusive to Lexus to achieve an optimized balance of acceleration performance and reduced fuel consumption.

“The gasoline engine develops 190hp and 239Nm of torque, while the front and rear motor generators add 182hp and 54hp, respectively.

“The NX 350h Premier comes with electric folding rear seats, a 17-speaker Mark Levinson Surround Sound system, and a power rear hatch with a kick sensor.

“The

“The IS 300h sport sedan was born and bred at the Shimoyama Technical Center Test Track, where the toughest and most challenging roads in the world have been recreated.

“Under the svelte and sculpted lines of the IS 300h is a powerful-yet-efficient hybrid drivetrain. It is powered by a 2.5-liter inline four-cylinder mated to a Lexus E-CVT intelligent transmission for optimum efficiency in every driving condition.

“It is also available in IS300H Executive and IS300H Premier variants.

“The Lexus ES 300h Executive ES 300h Luxury is quieter, safer and more spacious than ever before.

“The RX 450h, NX 300h and the LS 500h flagship model now carry the Lexus Multi Stage Hybrid System for an all-new driving experience.”

pee stop Here’s Honda’s pressed down prices: BR-V 1.5S MT P1,090,000, BR-V 1.5S CVT P1,150,000, BR-V 1.5V CVT P1,295,000, and BR-V 1.5VX CVT Honda SENSING P1,390,000… My gratitude to Aimee Li of Toyota Commonwealth for her grace and kindness to someone, who, despite being a complete stranger to her, she had extended precious time and undiminished assistance. Aimee displayed the ultimate trait of what a model entrepreneur is: Faithful and dedicated to a customer from start to finish. Cheers!

Story & photos by Randy S. Peregrino

site powered by renewable energy from SEPH following the successful transition of Shell North Luzon Tollway 1 (NLT1) in Balagtas, Bulacan.

Present during the ceremonial switching event were Shell companies in the Philippines Country Chair Lorelie Quimbao-Osial, General Manager of Shell Energy Philippines Inc. Bernd Krukenberg, and Pilipinas Shell Vice President and General Manager for Mobility Randy

Mt.

Rita site,

2050 through its powering progress strategy. Shell holds a 40 percent share of the self-operating joint venture. Among its global strategies for the next few years to fulfill the objective is supplying sufficient renewable energy for the planet in over 50 million homes, operating more

than 2.5 million charging points for electric vehicles (EV), and the production of eight times more low-carbon fuels.

transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources will meet the everincreasing demand for power from the Philippines’ growing population,” QuiambaoOsial stressed. “Shell’s investments are and will be in technologies that will support the government-led energy transition agenda to ensure continuing, sustainable power to the Filipino people.”

(From left) Shell companies in the Philippines Country Chair Lorelie Quimbao- osial, General manager of Shell Energy Philippines Inc. Bernd Krukenberg, and Pilipinas Shell Vice President and General manager for mobility randy Del Valle

ThE prop switch bearing blue, green, and purple colors, which represents Water and Air, Nature and Land, and Innovation and Technology, respectively